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A SHORT HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








GEORGE STEPHENSON—1781-1848 
{nventor and First Practical Demonstrator of Steam Locomotives 


Painted by H. P. Briggs, R. A. Engraved by C. Turner, A. R. A., 1838 
—From ‘“‘A Century of Locomotive Building by Robert Stephenson & Co.’’ 


A SHORT HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


COVERING TENSDECADES 


BY 


SLASON THOMPSON 





ILLUSTRATED 


D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
Ue yey CL ete MOD Duiss iui orca IN LOIN 


COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


To 
The Two Million and More Railway Employes 
and Their Allied Workers in the 
United States 
upon whose continusus energy and vigilance 
rests the unending task of carrying on 
by day and by night 
our continental transportation service 
with promptness, speed and safety 
unparalleled in the history 
of the World 


THIS BOOK IS 
FESRECTRPOULEY DEDICATED 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
EDITION 


WHEN the first edition of this short history was sent to 
press without the customary preface, it would seem that the 
second might follow similarly bereft. But since the favorable 
comment it evoked has almost universally been accompanied 
by the remark that it furnished a much needed chapter to the 
wondrous story of the republic, a few words may be added to 
emphasize the dereliction of American historians. 


In Justin Winsor’s monumental “Narrative and Critical 
History of America,” neither in the indices to the eight quarto 
volumes nor the general index for the whole work does the 
word Railway appear. Other historians: have not been so ex- 
clusive in their narratives but none of them has paid anything 
like proportionate attention, much less homage, to the one in- 
dustry that has brought all other industries on this continent 
within trading distance of each other. 


This omission probably accounts for President Coolidge’s 
failure to recognize, in his noble memorial address at the Min- 
nesota State Fair on June 8th last, the coincidence of the cen- 
tennial there celebrated with the demonstration of steam and 
rail transportation on the Stockton & Darlington Railway, 
September 26, 1825. Until the railways came, the coming of 
the first shipload of Norse immigrants into New York in that 
year, so splendidly recounted by the President, would have 
been an insignificant event in the expansion of the republic. 
The landing of a ship’s company of fifty-two souls who quickly 
found homes on the thickly wooded frontier of New York 
state was of small significance in the settlement of America 
until the rails came to carry them and their descendants and 
successors on to Illinois and later on to Minnesota and the 
Dakotas. Not until after 1840. was there a mile of railway in 
Illinois, and not until after 1860 was there a mile of railway 
in Minnesota or either of the Dakotas. As told in these pages, 
the first locomotive to reach St. Paul got there by boat in 


1860; and immigration returns record that Norse immigration 
first assumed noteworthy proportions in the following decade. 


Glancing over the printed pages of this “Short History” 
the writer is conscious of how far it comes from filling the 
gaps in the general histories of the United States. As the re- 
viewer for the San Francisco Chronicle says, it merely “hits 
the high spots.” The true history of American railways is to 
be found in the valleys—following the meandering rivers and 
rivulets and seeking the lowest grades across or through the 
intervening heights. | 

The American Railway Association might well devote a 
share of its activities to assembling the histories of its 200 
Class I roads into a story of that “magnificent and wondrous 
adventure,” the making of the railways of America, with at 
least one chapter given to the rescue of our Sister of the 
Snow from the long haul of the toboggan and the dog train. 


In the following pages have been incorporated some forty- 
five corrections kindly pointed out by readers in response to 
the invitation on the flyleaf of the first edition. While the 
majority of these were palpable slips of the proof reader, one 
was in a material feature involving the substitution of a small 
cut of “Old Ironsides” for that of George Stephenson’s 
“Planet” 1830. This was the more regrettable because the 
“Planet” was the real prototype of the early locomotives built 
in America. The interested reader can observe the resemblance 
in the cuts as they appear in this edition. 

The reception of the “Short History” by the press, railway 
officials and the general public has been most gratifying. 


SLASON THOMPSON. 


@ 


August, 1925. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Introdtictory Uy ee ae 3 eee Sete ae feet ee t 

Chapter I Birth. OL Cie 1) evee Wet tne cam gale 6 
Before the Iron Horse Came 

Vhapter II 1830) to 1840 oe eee ee ee 43 
The Genesis of Railways in America | 

Ghapternsrrt 1840 to, TS SO ce ciate aime eariee vate ve mee 82 
Pushing Across the Alleghenies 

Chapter IV 1850 to, TRGO AAU tips Or aces cece eee 102 
On to the Mississippi 

Chapter V 1860 to. 1870. ee are 147 
The Railways Save the Union 

Chapter VI L870; to Fl BBOR eT tank ee ae ae aie 189 
On to the Pacific Coast 

Chapter VII 1880 to 1890 heiress ee a ee 229 
How Regulation Came About 

Chapter VIII 1 89045 L900 oe tea bs het ns tie oy ae Laem 253 
Rebates Abolished 

Chapter 1X TOQO FtON1O LO ar eee nae Re erer es ores 283 
Construction Slows Up 

Ghantersx. POLO S16 1920 ices, cue catenerat oe ee toy ete ae 324 
Experiment in State Operation 

Chapter XI 1920; and* Thereatt ers as acre ee 380 
Emerging from the War Cloud 

Chapter XII The Railway Door of Opportunity..... 415 
Men at the Helm 

PhetSpirit.dis ransportation® Avs...s neice 442 

Bibhoer ra plivst ch satiate sie cre cin ee 445 

Wddenda-=Ay Ber@, Soka sae vata 0 coe ee ee 450 

Bees os Pee ia eae ta eee ct 18) Gn Prenat. <a. te:'s-bal da er 455 


A SHORT HISTORY OF AMERICAN 
RAILWAYS 


INTRODUCTORY 





LIFE ON THE FOOTPLATE: EVERY BOY’S DREAM OF BLISS 


From Punch by Permission. 


Monday 21st (March) We went over in a Canoe 
& travell’d up Maryland side all y. Day in a Continued 
Rain to Coll Cresaps right against y. Mouth of y. 
South Branch about 40 miles from Polks I believe y. 
worst Road that ever was trod by Man or Beast. 


—Washington’s Journal, 1747-8. 


HEN I was a small boy, Noah’s Ark was the most cher- 


ished plaything of boys and some girls. 


catisfied until he runs a train 
of cars, while his sister clings 
to her dolls—rag, French or 
talking,—as her parents’ 
purse can buy. From the 
days of the deluge to those 
of George Stephenson (1821) 
water afforded the easiest 
form of transportation, and 
according to some theorists 
water has’ gridironed the 
tandsca-p.e cot the Wnited 
States ever since. 


One hundred years ago 
there was not a mile of rail- 
road track on this continent, 


Today no boy is 





THE FIRST CAR ON RAILS 


Note the car on wheels and rails in the 
background 


From German Print of 1550 


2 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





and little more on any other continent, for that matter. Now 
there are over 400,000 miles of track in the United States 
alone. 

When George Washington anticipated the advice of 
Horace Greeley, “Go West, young man,” he had to play the 
part of baggage car for his only change of clothing, and many 
a night he went to sleep with nothing above him but the 
watchful stars—and the voices of the night were not too 
friendly in those untrodden wilds. 


Washington visited the site of Pittsburgh in 1753, 1755 
and 1770, but his prophetic vision could not anticipate how 
its destiny was to depend on 
the rail, and not on the merg- 
ing of the Monongahela ana 
Alleghany rivers into the 
Ohio. The site he chose for 
a fort has become the second 
railway center in the world. 

EARLY HORSE RAILWAY IN In 1774 the government sold 

GERMANY : = 

feud.“ Uhis'was atcuiy wife wenec Sore 

a ity Sof Pittsbureh sabe tee 
pounds per one hundred acres,” or 50 cents an acre. The first 
mail route by horseback between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia 
was established in 1786. ‘To the student, whether of ten years 
or eighty, it is hard to visualize a map of the United States 
without the tracery of lines that signify, railroads from East-— 
port, way up on the borders of Maine, to San Diego, way down 
on the Pacific coast of California. 





The schoolboy who draws an outline map of the republic 
showing its lakes, rivers and mountains can get a glimpse of 
the prospect of transportation and settlement upon which 
Daniel Bocne and other early pioneers looked with fearless 
eyes. The maps of the early twenties scarcely indicated the 
post roads between the chief cities. The colonial conquest 
of America had followed Indian trails, and the opposing 
armies of the Revolution marched to meet each other mostly 
by paths and turnpike roads. 


INTRODUCTORY 3 


Navigable streams were unbridged, and Washington 
crossing the Delaware in a scow in a snow storm, as pictured, 
illustrated the dangers that attended land transportation along 
the coast in those days. 
Tf the ocean was the high- 
way of nations in pre-railroad 
days, the bays, estuaries, 
lakes and rivers were their 
byways. Until Watt invented 
the steam engine and Fulton 
hitched it to a flat boat with 
side wheels, navigation had 
made but slow progress from 
the days when Columbus 
crossed the uncharted sea |THE LADY AND THE LOAFER 
with his three caravels. The freight’ traf joes ee 

: and heavy end of the pole. 

three-decker men-of-war, with 

which Nelson checkmated Napoleon at Trafalgar and changed 
the course of empire, were picturesque but cumbersome 
things; and the passage of clipper ships across the Atlantic 
was a matter of weeks where it is now one of days. It all 
depended on how the seas ran 
and the winds blew. 

The settlement of Amer- 
ica was at first restricted to 
boatloads that landed fewer 
fugitives, dissenters and ad- 
venturers in a year than a 
single immigrant steamer 
brings now in one trip. 

It was steam that made 
the navigable waters of Amer- 
ica really available for transportation, just as it was the steam 
railroad that later was to return the long reaches of these 
waters to the hoot of the lonely loon and the guardianship 
of the watchful kingfisher. 

In the early days of the 19th century men and mes- 
sages took from two weeks to a month to cross the Atlantic. 








FAST FREIGHT—AN INDIAN POLE 
DRAG 


4 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





The amazing story of the conversion of this continent 
from the paralysis of “magnificent distances” to the accessible 
civilization of 48 states in one indissoluble Union is told in 
this Short History of American Railways. This history will not 
attempt to be exhaustive. It will only seek to give in outline the 
part played by the railways in making this continent the hive of 
the busiest civilization. It will touch on the high spots of the 
transportation industry, leaving the details to the students of par- 
ticular periods that mark its progress from Baltimore to farthest 
Alaska. The romance of railways is engrossing, its reality 
is more wonderful. The romance of railway expansion was 
pretty nearly regulated out of 
railways when the fixing of 
rates was vested in the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission 
by the enactment of the Act 
to Regulate Commerce. 

The writing of this history 
was easy where it dealt with 
the amazing development of 

Be OL Tn te sete ta aye oO Oee tLe reer 

tramways, inclined planes and 
stationary engines to the days when its vastness invited the 
regulating hand of government. When the great void 
spaces of the continent had been explored, surveyed and 
largely gridironed with railway facilities, a change came 
over the relations cf the public, the carriers and their em- 
ployes, so that the writer has had to deal with controversial 
subjects rather than the orderly narrative of the development 
of the world’s greatest transportation achievement. Up to 
the opening of this century he has felt the pleasure of his- 
torical composition, the enthusiasm of seeing a mighty sub- 
ject expand through its own momentum. Since 1900 the story 
has been a struggle to hold a straight and sane course through 
the whirling waters of Niagara with rocks and shallows on 
either hand. The result can scarcely satisfy either side—any 
more than a Daniel could reconcile the animosities of the 
Montagues and the Capulets. 





INTRODUCTORY = 





Some day carriers and employes will recognize that co- 
operation in service to the public is the first essential to suc- 
cessful railway operation. When that day comes both will 





1825-1924 
PHOTOGRAPH OF EARLIEST AND LATEST ENGLISH LOCOMOTIVE 
Courtesy Railway Gazette—London, 


unite to celebrate the conquest of a continent by men always 
looking forward. 

The illustrations, which tell a coincident story of the con- 
quest of a continent, are not always in immediate connecticn 


with the text, which does not always lend itself to pictorial aid. 
Sal. 


A SHORT HISTORY OF AMERICAN 
RAILWAYS 


CHAPTER I 


BEFORE THE IRON HORSE CAME. 


pies are three ways of transportation known to man, 
yea, four—namely, highways, waterways, railways and 
airways. Highways, with their 
variants of byways, paths, 
trails, roads and streets, have 
been known to man from the 
dawn of time. They were 
first footworn across plain 
and mountain ridge by the 
passing “tread of pioneers of 
nations. yet to be.” Only as 


il ‘civilization wound its inter- 
HI minable way through the 
. slow-moving ages did man 
Perfector of first practical steam begin to build roads to con- 





JAMES WATT, 1736-1819 


ye are nect hamlets, towns and cit- 


ies with improved means for the movement of his accumula- 
tion of goods and chattels. Passengers for centuries made 
their journeys on horses, mules, camels and even elephants. 
The walls of all times abound with the pictorial ‘history of 
transportation, from the rudest sledge to the mightiest Mallet 
engine of today. The ox-cart, with wheels made from the 
cross-section of trees, anticipated the two-wheeled chariots 
with which the ancients raced or made war. 

For the transportation of what Julius Caesar grandilo- 
quently called his impedimenta, the Romans built those time- 
defying roadways whose foundations are to be traced all over 
Europe, even to the far extremities of Great Britain. 


BEFORE THE IRON HORSE CAME 7 


The evolution from primitive two-wheeled carts to the 
imposing stage coach of the 17th century was _ snail-like, 
apparently waiting on the development of the turnpike high- 
way which eventually admitted of a journey of 400 miles 
from London to Edinburgh in 40 hours, including all stops. 
It is recorded that it took 400 horses—one horse per mile— 
in relays, to accomplish this extraordinary feat. 















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































HOW OUR ANCESTORS TRAVELLED AND WHERE THEY FOUND “ENTER- 
TAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST! BEFORE THE RAILWAYS CAME 


“Until the close of the last century,” says Dionysius 
Lardner in his “Railway Economy; a treatise on the New 
Art of Transport,’ London, 1850, “the internal transport of 
goods in England was performed by waggon, and was not 
only intolerably slow, but so expensive as to exclude every 
object except manufactured articles, and such as being of 
light weight and small bulk in proportion to their value, 
would allow of a high rate of transport. Thus the charge 
for carriage by waggon from London to Leeds was at the 
rate of £13 a ton, or 13%4d. (27 cents) per ton mile. Between 
Liverpool and Manchester it was forty shillings a ton, or 
15d. (30 cents) per ton mile.” 


8 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


In America the first stage coach was run between New 
York City and Boston in 1782, “probably not regularly and 
not long continued,” says the narrative. In 1756, however, 
there was one stage running between New York City and 
Philadelphia, distance 90 miles, time three days. By 1811 
there were four coaches each way on this line. The express 
(or “expedition”) coach made the run in 12 hours, fare $8.00; 
the “Diligence’;made it in 26 hours, fare. S050 -sthes Accom. 
modation,” stopping over night at New Brunswick, fare $4.50, 
and the “Mail Coach,” traveling all night, time 17 hours. The 
historian adds, “At this time the coaches were poorly con- 
structed for eight or ten passengers, each being allowed 14 
pounds of luggage free. In later years the stage coach was 
improved, but was never agreeable, as the roads were always 
bad, except in the finest weather.” 

This highway was a part of the road General Washington 
took on his memorable journey from Mount Vernon to New 
York, whither he went to take the oath of office as first Presi- 
dent of the United States on April 30th, 1789. 

Some idea of what long distance travel in the United States 
of 1807 was may be gained from the account of Aaron Burr’s 
journey on horseback under arrest from Fort Stoddard to 
Washington, a distance of about one thousand miles. “For 
days torrential rains fell; streams were swollen; the soil was 
a quagmire. For hundreds of miles the only road was an 
Indian trail; wolves filled the forest; savage Indians were 
all about. At night the party, drenched and chilled, slept on 
the sodden earth.” 

It was under similar conditions that earlier in the history 
of this continent Washington had crossed the Alleghenies 
and with the eye of a seer surveyed the undulating valleys 
of the Ohio that only needed practical transportation to be- 
come the Eden of the West. But his vision of the future 
only comprehended the possibility of the realization of that 
vision by means of hard wagon roads and waterways. 

According to Mackenzie’s “Historical, Topographical and 
Descriptive View of the United States of America, Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, 1819,” in 1816 there were two great post roads in 


BEePORiE 17 1RON@-HORSE CAME 9 


the country, “(1) That which extends from Robinstown, on 
the north-eastern extremity of the coast of the United States, 
to St. Mary’s on-the south-eastern extremity; and (2) The 
road which extends from Washington to New Orleans. The 
length of the first is 1733, that of the second, 1233 miles.” 

On these roads the mail traveled at the rate of from 60 to 
120 miles a day; “on the cross roads its progress is about 40 
miles in the same time.” 

Mr. Mackenzie adds: “The following regulations con- 
cerning this establishment (the general post office at Wash- 
ington) were adopted by an Act of the American Congress 
on the 9th of April, 1816: 

Miles Cents 


Ratesvor ostace, letter, of one sheet) vo 04i00 2. oS 30 6 
wiatestOir Ostage etter. of one sects cl aera ss x hs Joe 80 10 
ates o., -ostace “letter. of one sheet... i ei ce Ges 150 12% 
Pte Ot Osta vemler er ORrOne GieCbs cle ig v1s.c0)¢ se-e.t ebd 406 1814 
Pee Fat pecs ol TEM Se See rok 8 hee oe har sg cleat occa ec wn 6, suman am ace, basso ale 25 


Double letter, the double of these rates. 
Triple letter, the triple. 


“The yearly transportation of the mail in stages amounts 
to 2,411,760 miles; ditto in sulkies and on horseback, 3,180,892 
miles. Total, 5,592,652 miles. Averaging one office to fifteen 
miles and a half of post roads.” 

The accompanying cut of an American Stage Wagon is 
from an engraving in Mr. Mackenzie’s rare and intensely 
interesting “View of the United States of America” slightly 
over a century ago. 


The Era of Waterways 


From the date of the earliest history, told in rude draw- 
ings on stone, man has utilized water to transport himself 
and chattels, including for many ages his many wives, chil- 
dren and herds, from place to place. He began by mastering 
his equilibrium on a floating log. He quickly learned to fasten 
two logs together with vines. This gave him the first form of 
a raft, such as boys construct for the navigation of neighbor- 
ing ponds and creeks to this day. 


10 HISTORY .OF AMERICAN *RAILWAYS. 


As soon as man provided himself with a stone hatchet, he 
conceived the idea of scooping out a hollow log into a canoe. 
He probably got this idea from seeing the half of a cocoanut 
shell or gourd or even a clam shell floating in water where 
it would sink if overturned. Anyhow, from the rudest sort 
of a savage dugout was evolved every form of boat that floats 
on lake, ocean or waterway today. It took centuries to con- 
vince man that boats could be built of iron or steel as well 
as wood. But the lesson once demonstrated, the wooden 
vessel as an ocean carrier has been almost driven on the shores 
of oblivion. 

The story of the great Deluge affords us the first more or 
less authentic account of the building of the original ocean 
freighter or tramp. The specifications of that historic sea 
going menagerie are worthy the study of every child and 
grown person. It was to be constructed of gopher wood, 
divided into many rooms to 
accommodate all manner of 
living things. It was to be 
“pitched within and without 
with pitch,’ and this is the 
fashion after which it was to 
be built; in length 300 cubits, 
in breadth fifty cubits and in 
height thirty cubits. As a 
cubituis’ the sleneth Miromed 
man’s elbow to the end of his middle finger, a fair notion of 
the dimensions of this first marine monster can be had. 
For easy reckoning, the Hebrew cubit has been accepted 
as 22 inches, which would indicate that Noah’s ark was 
about 550 feet long, or some 140 feet shorter than the 
Great Eastern: or most of our modern leviathans.. [he 
Ark, however, had greater width of beam and depth of 
hold. Having no machinery, it was therefore of greater 
carrying capacity than any of our great ocean tramps. 
The Ark was a three-decker, but was scantily  fur- 
nished in the matter of windows and doors. Neither was 
there any artificial ventilation. There was no lack of fresh 





EARLY RAFT ON THE MISSISSIPPI 


BeMOR Pett lO N. 21 OiS baie 11 


water for lavatory and drinking purposes. The crew and 
animal attendants had only to “Dip it up.” 


For the forty-day voyage for which it was designed, the 
event established its sea going efficiency. As the flood re- 
ceded, instead of sinking to rest in the soft ooze of some 
ferifiewvalleyamear sbacdads sit went asnore. on, the top of 
Mount Ararat, some 17,112 feet above sea level, which gives 
a faint notion of the freshet necessary to destroy every living 
thing from the face of the earth except those with Noah 
in the Ark. When the waters subsided, the Ark occupied 
the highest dry dock in the history of maritime adventure. 

Coming down from the days of Noah some two thousand 
and odd years B. C., there was a slow evolution of water 
carriage by different types of raft and boats with poles, oars 
and sails for motor power. Tyre and Sidon, on the sea 
coast of Palestine, were the ports from which the trade of 
Western Asia sought an outlet to the cities of Europe on the 
Mediterranean Sea seven hundred years before Christ. 


It is claimed that Phoenician sailors rounded the Cape of 
Good Hope fully 2,000 years before Vasca di Gama discovered 
that India could be reached by way of that bold promontory 
at the extreme south end of Africa. This discovery placed 
it on the route of one of the great ocean highways of the 
world. It was to shorten this route to India that the Suez 
Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Sea, was begun 
in 1858 and finished in 1869. 

The story of the gradual development of transportation 
by water from galleys, with twenty-two slaves tugging at 
oars on either side, to the great square-rigged ships that 
studded every ocean before steam came to take the wind out 
of their sails, is one of fascinating adventure and romance. 
The greatest adventure of them all was the one that brought 
immortal fame to the great Genoese sailor and opened ‘this 
continent to the freedom-seeking colonists of Europe. What 

land-bred American has not thrilled with the compelling lines 
of Joaquin Miller on Columbus, beginning with: 


12 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Behind him lay the gray Azores, 
Behind the Gates of Hercules. 
Before him not the ghost of shores, 
Before him only shoreless seas. 


And ending: 


Then pale and worn he paced the dec 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
Of all dark nights! And then a speck— 

A light! A light! At last a light! 


It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! 
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. 

He gained a world; he gave that world 
Its grandest lesson: “On! Sail on!” 


It was the voyage in search of another sea route to India 
that paved the way for the Mayflower and the countless 
flotillas of sailing vessels that quickly established an ocean 
highway between Europe and America. Columbus was sev- 
enty days making the voyage from Spain to the Bahamas; 
the Mayflower had a stormy passage of sixty-three days from 
Plymouth to Cape Cod, and the tiny Half Moon made a round 
about trip in search of the Northwest passage that took 
Hudson 151 days from Amsterdam to New York, at the mouth 
of the river that bears his name to this day. 


Artificial Waterways 


Thus far we have been considering the development of 
transportation over the natural waterways of the earth, of 
which the oceans and the seven seas rank first, followed by 
the great lakes, estuaries and rivers. But man quickly 
rebelled against the obstructions that nature interposed 
between his chosen waterways. So, as early as thirteen cen- 
turies before Christ, Sisostris cut canals for transporting 
merchandise running at right angles with the Nile as far as 
Memphis to the sea. Various attempts were.made by Roman 
emperors to cut a canal across the isthmus at Corinth. China 
had a canal nearly 700 miles long from Hang-choo-foo to 
Yan-kiang river in the 13th century. 7 


Ber wit Pv iON, HORSE. CAME i3 





In Great Britain the earliest canal was one 36 miles long, 
10 feet deep and 66 feet wide, from Leeds to Goole. A canal 
mania struck the United Kingdom toward the close of the 
18th century—the longest being a shallow ditch four feet deep 
from Leeds to Liverpool, a distance of 127 miles. A projected 
canal to join Stockton and Darlington was nipped in the bud 
by the survey and construction of the pioneer railway between 
those two historic points. Ireland had two canals six feet 





LOCK AT LOCKPORT ON .THE ERIE CANAL—1826 


deep, one from Dublin to the green banks of the Shannon, 
89 miles, and the other from Dublin to Cloondara, both of 
which are wet to this day. The Cloondara canal was dug in 
such leisurely fashion that it took 33 years to complete it. 
The canal mania did not extend to the United States until the 
second decade of the 19th century, although a short canal 
named the Middlesex, connecting Boston and the Concord 
river, was constructed in 1804. 

The Erie canal, begun in 1817 and opened from Albany to 
Buffalo, 352 miles, in 1825, was the first and most ambitious 
attempt to solve the growing transportation needs of the 
United States by an artificial waterway. Between eight and 
nine million dollars were spent in its construction; but, though 


14 HISTORY ORSAMIERI GAN Sent iaa 


40 feet wide at the top, it was so shallow—only four feet 
deep—that it was contemptuously referred to as “the longest 
and most expensive gutter in the world.” 


It is interesting to recall that three fast-walking horses 
could draw a canal boat four miles an hour on its placid bosom, 
and it is recorded that “at the end of the fourth day from 
Schenectady the jaded traveler reached Buffalo.” Where it 
had previously cost $5 and taken 30 days to ship 100 Ibs. from 
Philadelphia to Columbus, Ohio, after the Erie Canal was 
opened the time was reduced to 20 days and the cost to $2.50. 
During the first seven years after its completion the business 
of the Erie canal doubled and the rejoicings over its prospects 
seemed justified. The echo of the steam whistle had not yet 
been heard reverberating along the banks of the mighty 
Mohawk. Other canals opened about this time were the: 


Oswego—Oswego to Syracuse, N. Y. 

Cayuga and Seneca—Geneva to Montezuma, N. Y. 

Black River—Rome to Carthage, N. Y. 

Champlain—Waterford to Whitehall, N. Y. d 

Delaware and Hudson—Rondout, N. Y., to Honesdale, Pa. (108 miles). 
Morris—Jersey City to Phillipsburg, N: J. (102 miles). 
Lehigh—Easton to Coalport, Pa. * 

Lehigh Delaware Division—Easton to Bristol, Pa. 
Pennsylvania—Columbia to Wilkesbarre, Pa. (144 miles). 
Pennsylvania. West Branch Division (35 miles). 

Pennsylvania Juniata Division (14 miles). 

Susquehanna & Tidewater—Susquehanna, Pa., to Havre de Grace, Md. 
Chesapeake & Ohio—Georgetown to Cumberland, Md. (184 miles). 
Dismal Swamp—Elizabeth river to Pasquotonk, N. C. 
Ohio—Cleveland to Portsmouth, O. (308 miles). 

Ohio Hocking Branch. 

Ohio Walholding Branch. 

Miami & Erie—Cincinnati to Toledo, O. (264 miles). 

Illinois & Michigan—Chicago to Illinois river (97 miles). 


All these canals were projected, built and opened between 
the years 1817 and 1849, except the Dismal Swamp, which 
was begun in 1787 and opened in 1794, a remarkably quick 
job, as canal digging went in those days. The purpose of 
this canal was not to drain the Swamp, but to allow small 


BPEBORE THE JRON= HORSE CAME 15 





schooners with a draft of less than five feet to bags from Ches- 
_apeake bay to Albemarle sound. 

It is worthy of notice that, with one exception, all these 
early canal ventures were in the eastern section of the original 
territory of the United states. 

The life of the average canal mule was said to be the same 
as that of a modern freight car, twenty-five years. He was 
held to be serviceable as long as he had a good pair of heels. 

The Middlesex, of which mention has been made, was 
really the first canal in the United States designed to facilitate 
general passenger and freight business. It was 31 miles long, 
24 feet wide and 4 feet deep. A packet boat plied regularly 
between Boston and Lowell, taking nearly a day for the jour- 
ney. Ihe first boat voyage to Concord, N. H., was made 
in 1819. This embryo canal, having served its purpose well, 
was disused in 1851. 

Throughout his life George Washington was an ardent 
believer in canals to connect the great American waterways. 
He was especially interested in the project of a canal to link 
up Georgetown on the Potomac to Cumberland at the base of 
the Alleghenies. Something like $15,000,000, first and last, 
was expended on this one enterprise. Among other early 
canal projects favored by Washington were the Potomac & 
Ohio, the James & Ohio and the Mohawk & Great Lakes con- 
nections—all, it will be perceived, designed to carry out his 
heart’s dream of tightening the bonds between the coast 
cities and the great plains of the West. 

The birch canoe of the American Indian is the most buoy- 
ant and tottlish mode of water transport known to man. In 
Shape it is a thing of beauty, and with a light load of two 
persons seems to ride upon the surface of the water, and yet 
it is so constructed, wide and flat in the center, tapering to 
both ends, that it will carry extraordinarily heavy loads. 
Although both ends are exactly alike, through the perversity 
of inanimate things the steersman by choice invariably takes 
the same end. The typical Indian canoe has no seats—just 
bars—the center bar being used to lift and carry the inverted 
canoe by a single person. 


16 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The toboggan, with teams of dogs or hauled by the proud 
brave or patient squaw, was the typical winter means of 
transport of the American Indians. The snowshoe served to 
carry the hunter, but little else when the snow was deep 
and heavy. 

When the white man began to supplant the Indian along 
the magnificent water stretches of America, he quickly substi- 
tuted poles, oars and sails for paddles; and batteaux, skiffs, 
flatboats and keel boats for canoes, as means of water trans- 
port. With the current, there was no limit to the loads they 
could carry any distance so long as time was not to be con- 
sidered. What if it did take 90 days from Pittsburgh to 
New Orleans, it was a deliberate age and there was always 
adventure along the way. Before the river steamer came to 
disturb the serenity of the scenery, passengers and crew had 
plenty of time to reflect on how they were to get back. Until 
the steamer came it was cheaper to sell the barges than to 
push, pole or row them against the relentless currents. 

In considering the pre-steamer condition of transportation 
in America it is well to remember the difference in the freight 
charge between descending and ascending navigation. In 1814 
it was stated “the freight on a barrel of produce or merchandise 
from Louisville to New Orleans, a distance of 1,545 miles, was 
$1.50, but to come up from New Orleans to Louisville it was 
$4.50 a hundred weight, or $9 a barrel. The latter figure is 
at the rate of 5.8 cents per ton mile where the former is about 
1 cent per ton mile. The up river rate could be paid only by 
expensive merchandise. The rivers or natural waterways of 
this continent before the coming of steam were practically 
“one-way” highways for the transport of the traffic that within 
a century was to exceed that of all the rest of the world. 

The Coming of Steam Power 

But across the water which the fastest sailing vessel ever 
built took nearly two weeks to cross, the inventive genius of 
man was experimenting with the expansive power guaranteed 
through the combination of fire and water. For generations 
and centuries man had watched the struggle of boiling water 
to escape confinement in any kind of a pot or kettle. What 


Bene tHe. IRON HORSE CAME i7? 


boy has not heard the spirit of steam singing and puffing in 
the kettle on the hearth or, more likely, the kitchen .stove? 
The power of steam to impart motion was known to the 
ancients, but its application was scarcely thought of until 
some-time about the end of the 17th century. In 1705 a 
blacksmith of Dartmouth, England, patented a contrivance 
which worked by steam to pump water from mines. 

In 1776, when the United 
States of America took its 
place among the progressive 
nations ~.ot.twe earth; the 
world was still waiting for the 
coming of steam as the mo- 
tive power that was to make 
man independent of the prim- 
itive means of transport that 
had made little progress 
“since the days beyond the 
flood.” The railway waited 
on the coming of steam to 





emancipate man and mer- 


NEWCOMEN’S ENGINE—1705 chandise from the tyranny of 


This invention used the “‘beam’’ for the : : : t; 
first time in pumping engines and held time, wind and tide. Know 


its own until Watt started his additions, i San 0 
betterments and improvements, twenty Ing the power of steam, if 1s 


pga aE eed one of the mysteries of the 
ages how centuries went by before man made any practical 
use of that knowledge to harness it to do his will. | 

But toward the close of the 18th century it appears that 
the time was ripe for the utilization of steam. Scores of 
individuals in England and on the continent were busy in- 
venting steam engines. For the most part they were clumsy 
and inffective machines. Not until Thomas Newcomen em- 
ployed a steam cylinder and piston rod acting on a working 
beam, the opposite end of which operated a pump, was the 
first steam engine, properly so named, constructed. New- 
comen took out a patent on his invention without moving 
parts in 1705 and in 1723 set up an engine for drawing water. 


18 HISTORY OF. AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








" WATPS EXPERIMENF 


MODEL OF WATT’S PARLIEST 
STEAM ENGINE—1769 





In 1729 he died without hav- 
ing made any practical pro- 
gress with his epoch-making 
discovery. 

James Watt, who was to 
take Newcomen’s device and 
develop it into the greatest 
force of modern civilization, 
was not born until 1736.- He 
was a mathematical instru- 
ment maker at the University 
of Glasgow when he was 


called on to repair a model of one of Newcomen’s machines. 
Out of that chance meeting of the man and the opportunity 
came the improvements that in 1774 resulted in the modern 


“reciprocating” engine. 
alteration after” another, so 
quickly that nothing was left 
of the original Newcomen en- 
Pine bute thewpare Idearc 


applied the principle of keep-~. 


ing the cylinder, if possible, 
as Vhot cas-ithe ’steam- ‘that 
enters. it,.tnevisteam 1 jacket 
air pump, and “separate con- 
denser --e tne double acting 
engine with steam admitted 
at both ends of the cylin- 
der, producing the push and 
pull on the piston rod; the 
rigid connection between the 
piston and the crank shaft, 
the fly wheel—in fact all the 
attachments that were to 
adapt the steam engine to 
multifarious uses of mills, 
locomotives, steamships and 
factories. Watt also obtained 


Watt designed) one ‘addition and 





WATT’S SUCCESSFUL STEAM 
ENGINE—1774 
Note the resemblance to and departure 
from Newcomen’s engine 


BEFORE! OESIRONT HORS EeGAME 19 


a patent for a rotary steam engine. He made experiments 
with locomotives, but their successful construction was left for 
the genius of Richard Trevithick, who perfected a high-pres- 
sure steam engine—the principle which Watt disapproved— 
and finally put the first practical locomotive with flange 
wheels on iron rails. While earlier inventors were perfecting 
separate features of the steam engine, Watt’s was the genius 
that was to assemble what had been invented into the prac- 
tical machine which, yoked up first with boats and ships and 
then with cars on rails was to revolutionize the transportation 
of the world. 

So the power that was to 
provide carriage for man and 
his belongings with speed and 
strength beyond the most ex- 
travagant dreams of the 18th 
century was born. Once mas- 
tered, the force of steam was 
applied with amazing energy 
and success. How the con- 
tagion of invention spread may 
be condensed from the record: 





FULTON S SKETCH OF THE 
“CLERMONT” 


Steam carriage for roads built 
in France in 1769. 

Jonathan Hornblower patented an engine with two cylinders in 
1781. 

Watt invented a double acting engine in 1782. 

Phineas Crowther built an engine with a fly-wheel above the 
piston and no beam in 1800. 

America entered the lists in the same year, when Oliver Evans 
introduced the high pressure engine. 

The Reverend Edward Cartwright took out a patent for a portable 
engine in England in 1801. Here we are getting down to the days 
that presaged the coming of the modern locomotive. 

In 1802 Trevithick and Vivian of England patented a high pressure 
engine. Mark that name, Trevithick, as one inseparable from the 
early history of the locomotives, preceding that of Stephenson in point 
of time, but not in the fame that attaches to demonstrated success. 

The first practical steamboat, the tug Charlotte Dundas, was built by 
William Symington and tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal in March, 
1802. 


20 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Robert Fulton, with the assistance of Chancellor Livingston, United 
States ambassador to France, built a steam paddle boat 60 feet long which 
was tried on the Seine August 9, 1803. 

First railway locomotive built by Trevithick in 1804. 

Then George Stephenson took the center of the transportation 
stage with “The Rocket” in the ever-memorable year in railway 
annals, 1829. 

With the entrance of Stephenson, 
the era of experiment gave place 
to that of demonstration. 


The Rival Inventors 


No story of the begining of 
the railway era can omit a 
passing tribute to Richard 
Trevithick and George Steph- 
enson. It is possible that 
other men who were their 
contemporaries might have 
had as sound ideas of the 
application of steam to loco- 
motion as these two; there is 





ROBERT FULTON—1765-1815 a replica of a model of a road 
Father of Steamboat Navigation in the , ; A 
United States locomotive in the South 


From. a pamting by himselr”- Kensington Museum. said: to 
have been built by William Murdock in 1784, but none of the 
previous inventors had the good fortune to link their ideas 
to the practical device that was to rob distance of its terrors 
and bring the uttermost parts of five continents into compara- 
tively easy communication. 

Trevithick was the son of a Cornish mining engineer, born 
at Illogan in April, 1771, when the whole engineering world 
was experimenting with its new found power. Succeeding to 
his father’s profession, his first invention was naturally an 
improved steam pump which came into universal use in deep 
mine pumping. He next perfected a high pressure engine and 
began experimenting in locomotive engines. Passengers were 
first conveyed by steam by his road locomotives in 1801 and 
he was not long in successfully working out a steam road 
locomotive. In fact, Trevithick first adopted the rails upon 


BEBGRES THE ARON ~ HORSE CAME gl 








which Stephenson developed 
his inventions that were to 
revolutionize transportation. 
He was one of the first to 
recognize the value of iron in 
shipbuilding, and in many 
ways demonstratedithe posses- 
sion of true inventive genius. 
But Trevithick was of a rov- 
ing nature and profited little 
from his numerous 
tions,dying, as so many in- 
ventors do, poor. But his 
fame is secure. 


inven- 


















































RICHARD TREVITHICK—1771-1833 
Inventor of the first locomotive 


George Stephenson was born to a different fate. Fortune 
smiled upon him from his birth, near Newcastle, June 9, 1781. 
The ten years that separated him from Trevithick gave him 
the tremendous advantage of coming upon the stage when 
the experiments that ushered in the 19th century were ripen- 





TREVITHICK’S MODEL 
LOCOMOTIVE 


ing into practical results. In- 
stead of being born with a 
silver spoon in his mouth, 
Stephenson was born to an 
opportunity such as can never 
again play Fortunatus to a 
young and aspiring man. He 
had his apprenticeship as as- 
sistant fireman and brakeman 
in a colliery, and was made 
engineman: before “he, was 
twenty-one. In 1808 he took 
a contract to operate engines, 
and by 1812 was construct- 
ing them. . 

During this time Stephen- 
son was a close student of the 
progress that was being made 


ee HIST ORY “OP RAM PICA hie 


to apply steam power to locomotives, and devoted all his spare 
hours to working out the principle ina practical way. He was 
fortunate in obtaining the financial assistance that enabled 
him to construct a locomotive which was run on the colliery 
tramway on July 25, 1814, and drew eight wagons at the rate 
of four miles an hour. In passing, this may be compared with 





TREVITHICK’S GATESHEAD 
MODEL—1804 


the giant locomotive of today 
drawing a train of 100 cars, 
each capable of stowing away 
the eight wagons of Stephen- 
son’s successful invention. 
Stephenson next invented, 
or rather adapted, the “steam 
blast” that enabled him to 
double the speed of his loco- 
motive, and the patents he 
took out in 1815 continue the 
base for the construction of 


locomotives to this day. He was appointed resident engineer 
of the Stockton & Darlington line and persuaded its directors 








STEPHENSON’S PATENT LOCOMOTIVE 
From Strickland’s Report on Canals and Rail Roads, 1826. 


BEFORE THE [RON HORSE -CAME Ze 





to substitute steam for horses in its opening on September 
Rica dtesaay | 

The Stockton & Darlington Railway Act of April 17, 1821, 
merely provided for the hauling of wagons and other car- 
riages upon the line “with men or Horses or otherwise.” That 
“otherwise” opened the door through which George Stephen- 
son persuaded the company to drive the first train of cars 
hauled by a steam locomotive in the history of rail transporta- 
tone On september 26): 13825, theatrial: trip was made with 
a train consisting of the locomotive “Locomotion” and one 
coach, with George Stephenson in the coach and his elder 
brother James driving the engine. On the next day the formal 
opening took place with as heterogeneous a train as ever took 
part in one of the greatest events in railway history. It 
consisted of the following: 


The “Locomotion,” driven by George Stephenson. 

Tender with water and coals. 

Six wagons, loaded with coals, passengers on top of them. 
One wagon loaded with sacks of flour, passengers among them. 
One wagon containing the surveyors and engineers. _ 

Coach occupied by the directors and proprietors. 

Six wagons filled with strangers. 

Fourteen wagons packed with workmen and others. 


The weight of this train was estimated at eighty to ninety 
tons, and, deducting time for delays and two accidents, an 
average speed of eight miles an hour was attained. The 
legend records that the coals were distributed among the poor 
of the neighborhood and the workmen were regaled with 
victuals and ale. 


The accompanying halftone (p. 25) of “Locomotion,” as 
locomotive No. 1 en the Stockton & Darlington Railway was 
named is from a photograph taken in 1875 of the engine as’ re- 
constructed. It was built in 1825 by Robert Stephenson’ & > 
Company, and a comparison with the original drawings shows | 
that it preserves the original form and general appearance, 
although the wheels are of later pattern. The same engine 


24 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


is shown on a preceding page 
in contrast with a modern 
English locomotive of 1924. 

This event, however, was 
quickly overshadowed by the 
most far-reaching success of 
Stephenson’s career. He was 
employed in the construction 

of the Liverpool & Manches- 
GEORGE STEPHENSON’S “ROCKET” ciao an 
_FARLY MODEL ter Railway, which in itself 
was a great engineering feat 
across a swamp district known as Chat Moss. Here again 
he persuaded his directors to give his newly constructed 
engine a chance. They accordingly offered a prize of £500 
for a locomotive to run ten miles an hour, drawing three 
times its weight. The trial came off on October 26, 1829, and 
was won by Stephenson’s 
ever-famous “Rocket.” 

The boiler of this famous 
locomotive was cylindrical, 
40 inches broad and 72 inches 
long; the cylinders, placed at 
an angle of, 37 "deorees, were 
8 inches by 17 inches. There 
were 25 copper tubes 3 inches |_STEPHENSON’S “PLANET”, 1830 
E : ; “ The real prototype of early American 
in diameter, with a heating locomotives, Note the resemblance 
surface of 138 square feet. a eee es 
The “Rocket” had a grate area of 6 square feet. The diam- 
eter of the driving wheels was 56% inches. In working order 
it weighed 4 tons, 5 cwt., the tender 3 tons, 4 cwt. In the 
trial competition the tender was taken as part of the load. 
It attained a speed of 291% miles an hour. 

The award of the prize to the “Rocket” in the Rainhill 
trials of October 26, 1829, was not received without much 
adverse comment on the conduct of the judges in changing 
the conditions during their progress. Before these changes 
“The Novelty,” entered by Messrs. Braithwaite & Ericsson 











BEFORE THE IRON HORSE CAME 25 





of London, had demonstrated its superior speed by making 
“one mile in the incredibly short space of 1 minute and 53 
seconds,” according to a contemporary observer. On the 
second day it drew a load three times its own weight at “the 
rate of 2034 miles an hour,” consuming its own smoke, coke 
being the fuel used, but was unable to complete the trial 





LOCOMOTIVE NO. 1, BUILT FOR THE STOCKTON & DARLINGTON 
RAIEWAY BY ROBERT STEPHENSON & CO. IN 1825 


Though rebuilt more than once, it preserves its original form, only the wheels being 
of a different pattern 


because of rain “which clogged the railways with mud.” In 
a subsequent trial one of the feed pipes burst and the tempo- 
rary repair was “too green” to stand the necessary steam 
pressure. “The Novelty” weighed only 2 tons 15 cwt., or 
slightly more than half Stephenson’s “Rocket.” American 
youth will be interested to know that the junior member of 
the firm of Braithwaite & Ericsson was no other than John 
Ericsson, who came to the United States in 1839, in time to 
build the first Monitor, in 1861, and to revolutionize the con- 
struction of warships. 

A real novelty entered in the Rainhill trials was Bran- 
dreth’s horse engine called “Cyclopede,” weighing 3 tons. 


26 HISTORY (OF “AMERICAW  RAILY ALS 





“THE NOVELTY”—BRAITHWAITE & ERICSSON, RIVAL OF 
STEPHENSON?S# ROCKET? 


The Rainhill award of October 26, 1829, may be said to 
have ended the experimental stage of the locomotive. 

In the cost of railway construction the British pioneers 
set a pace which has kept them in the lead ever since. Up 
to the end of 1835, five years after it was opened, the little 
Liverpool & Manchester road had cost £1,195,000, or about 





BRANDETH’S PATENT HORSE POWER ENGINE—1829 


BEAORE. CHE. TRON HORSE-“CAME tae 


$187,495 per mile. Much of this was due to the excessive 
cost of the right of way. The value of railway lands in Eng- 
land in 1887 was placed at $1,615 per acre. At such a valua- 
tion the right of way of American railways in 1924 would be 
something over $5,500,000,000! 

The “Planet,” built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1830, 
was destined to be the type for a long line of practical engines 





THE “SAVANNAH” 
First steamship to cross the Atlantic. From drawing by C. B. Hudson under direction 


of Captain J. W. Collins of United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1889. 
and from the illustration is seen to be a great advance upon 
its —predecessors-of the ~ Locomotion” type: 


The Coming of Steam to America 


It is now in order to cross the Atlantic and see how the 
new force in mechanics fared in our land of sparse settle- 
ments and magnificent distances. Singularly enough, the 
first steamship to cross the ocean sailed from Savannah. She 
was named after the city from which she cleared, although 
built in New York. The “Savannah” sailed on May 20, 1819, 
and her log records that she sighted Cork, Ireland, on June 18 
following. She was a hybrid, for sail and steam, 99 feet long, 
with a 26-foot beam, and registered 350 tons. Her paddle 
wheels were arranged with a series of joints, so that they 


28 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





could be easily detached and hoisted on board, in case of 
storm. They could be shipped and unshipped in 20 minutes. 
When the “Savannah” reached the English Channel, she was 
mistaken for a ship on fire, and a revenue cutter that went to 
her assistance reported that 
“this strange ship went faster 
with bare poles than we could 
do with all sails set.” 

Dhe Savannah adm 
staterooms, but a wholesome 
terror of the two-fold perils 
of sea and steam kept them 
unoccupied on her maiden 
yoyare. = - hem natticanoment 
was merely significant of the 
avidity with which American 

OLIVER EVANS—1735-1819 ingenuity seized upon the 
Inventor of first high pressure engine. invention of Watt to- im- 
prove transportation conditions in the new world. 

Oliver Evans, who was credited with the invention of the 
high pressure engine in 1800, came to the front with one of 
the curiosities of steam locomotion. It was nothing less ambi- 
tious than an amphibious locomotive. It was provided with 
four wheels, upon which it traveled by land, and with a paddle 
wheel in the rear for propul- 
sion when it reached its na- 
tive element. Evans aiso con- 
structed the first steam 
dredge, consisting of a flat 
scow equipped with a small 
engine to work the machinery 








for raising the mud. This OLIVER EVANS’ ERUCTOR AM.- 


D 
dredge was also fitted with EA BOULS Oe 


wheels on which it propelled itself to the Schuylkill river, 
near which it was built. 

In 1780 Evans built a multitubular boiler in which the 
water was in the tubes, where in the modern boiler the heat 
is in the tubes and the water surrounds them. Evans was a 


BEFORE THES IRONY HORSE CAME 29 


typical Yankee inventor and. was able to turn his in- 
‘genuity to almost any mechanical contrivance that came 
under his observation. 




































































































































































































































































































































































= 


FIRST PASSENGER COACH, QUINCY RAILROAD 


) . 

The coming of the first American railway is generally 
traced to the construction of a tram road in 1826 from Quincy 
to Charleston, Massachusetts, to carry stone for the Bunker 








PRIMITIVE WOODEN RAILWAY AND CAR WITH DOUBLE FLANGES 
The artist failed to complete the switch 


Hill monument. It was purely a quarry road, operated by grav- 
ity and horse power. The horses pulled the cars up hill and 
rode down. | Another gravity road frequently mentioned in 


the early chronicles of American railways was that built at 


30 HISTORY OF AMERICAN ARAILVAALS 


Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania,.in 1827, to convey coal from 
the mine at Summit down to the Lehigh river. Still another 
tramway of these pre-railway days was that from Carbondale 
to Honesdale, some sixteen miles. It was on this last men- 
tioned road that the “Stourbridge Lion,” the first locomotive 
used in the United States, imported from England, had its 
trial trip. Although it weighed only seven tons, it was found 
too heavy for the primitive 
tracks of those days. 

These pioneer experiments, 
however, have to concede pri- 
macy to the tramway built 
in Ridley township, Delaware 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1806 





FREIGHT TRAIN ON THE QUINCY : 
LINE—THE FIRST RAILWAY by Thomas Leiper for the 


IN AMERICA, 
transportation of stone from 


his quarries on Crum Creek to his landing on Ridley Creek, 
a distance of about one mile. It is thus described in Dr. 
George Smith’s history of Delaware county, compiled in 1862: 

“The ascents were graded inclined planes, and the super- 
structure was made of white oak with cross ties and string 
pieces. The cars or trucks were very similar to those now 
in use, the wheels being made of cast iron with flanges. The 
line of the road can still be seen. This railroad was super- 
seded=by thes eiper ¢Canal, 
which passed from the upper 
quarries down Crum Creek to 
the landing, in 1828, and it 
was used until 1852, when.it...}f 
in turn was superseded by the |; 
present railroad.” 

Although the first locomo- 
tive of whose trial on Ameri- 
can rails we have any record, 





BANK OF THE DELAWARE & HUD- 
the “Stourbridge Lion” was SON CANAL COMPANY AT 13 WALL 


STREET, NEW YORK IN 1825. 
not the first locomotive to 


reach these shores, as the following notes furnished the writer 
by President Loree of the Delaware & Hudson Company 


BErOneebieeirON HORSE “CAME asl 


(originally the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company), which 
built the 16-mile line from Honesdale to Carbondale, testify : 
“This company sent its agent, Mr. Horatio Allen, to Eng- 
land in January, 1828, to secure locomotives to work on its 
gravity railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale, between the 
inclined planes, of which there were eight. One locomotive, 


re : Sa S 





GENERAL OFFICES—DELAWARE & HUDSON CANAL CO. IN ALBANY 
ABOUT 1870 


the ‘America,’ was bought of Stephenson & Company of New- 
castle, and arrived in New York on the steamship ‘Columbia’ 
on January 15, 1829. Three locomotives, the ‘Stourbridge 
Lion,’ the ‘Delaware’ and the ‘Hudson’ were bought of Foster, 
Rastrick & Company of Stourbridge, about sixteen miles from 
Birmingham, England. The ‘Stourbridge Lion’ arrived in 
New York on May 13, 1829.” The two others arrived in Au- 
gust and September, 1829, but what became of them is not 
recorded. 

“Both the ‘America’ and the ‘Stourbridge Lion’,” continues 
Mr. Loree, “were shipped by sloop to Rondout and there 
unloaded. We have a record of the shipment of the ‘America 


e 








PHIT.TIP HONE, 1781-1851 
First President, Delaware & Hudson 
CanalsCo. 





Be HISTORY, OP VAMERICAN- “RAILWAYS 


on the Delaware & Hudson 
Canal, but no further trace of 
ii, .exceptathat, oaeamimeits 
cylinders is now in the Smith- 
sonian Institution at Wash- 
ateqdeyaen Pot 

Apparently the trial trip 
of the “Stourbridge Lion” on 
August 8, 1829, was its last, 
because the strap rails were 
too sight to carry its seven 
tons, where Allen had con- 
tracted for only three. Allen 


-demonstrated his courage if 


not his discretion by running 
the. “lion™ across «the; irem= 
bling trestle’ at the rate of 
“ten miles an hour amid deaf- 


GENERAL OFFICES OF THE DELAWARE & HUDSON COMPANY IN 
ALBANY IN 1924 
Note the word ‘‘Canal’ was dropped from the title in 1899 by act of the legislature 


DEPOT IKON. AORSE«GAME 33 


ening cheers,’ but none of the cheering multitude accepted his 
_ invitation to become immortal by accompanying him. 

) To the “Stourbridge Lion” belongs the honor of having 
been the first steam locomotive to run on any American 
railway. } The cost of these two forerunners of the sixty-odd 
thousand American locomotives of today, as furnished by Mr. 
Loree, was as follows: 


“America” od Beis} ees 
PC Cee. ce eee ete eens $2,581.00 $2,190.63 
FRIGHPAN Cements heey. ba wate 95.79 26.79 
EU aci tee ch cmebgn dre uments 2k 8 UR oes os 230.08 93.33 
Sof Orns eae ae a eee wes 709.65 604.15 
Commission 1 per cent...... 27.90 Syesed 
mapense: unloading “7 incase jaa eaie’ py ee ree 

$3,663.30 $2,914.90 


The commission on the purchase of the “Lion” was in- 
cluded in the price. The grand 
total bill for the four locomo- 
tives bought by the Delaware 
& Hudson Company was 
$12,515.58, or about one-fifth 
the cost of an up-to-date mod- 
ern locomotive. 

Early in 1825 the “Pennsyl- 
vania Society for the Promo- 
tion of Internal Improve- 
ments in the Commonwealth” 
sent William Strickland, engi- 
neer, to Europe to collect in- 





HORATIO ALLEN : : F 
Engineer sent by the Delaware & Hudson formation relating to the 


Cc to Engl in 1828 . 
eet construction of canals, roads, 


railways, bridges, steam engines and various industrial arts. 
Its instructions excluded principles and theories and called 
for definite plans, drawings, specifications and estimates of 
cost. His first inquiries were to be directed to railways. And 
his instructions ended with the injunction, “Locomotive ma- 
chinery will command your attention and inquiry. This is 
entirely unknown in the United States and we authorize you 


34 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





to procure a model of the most THESE locomotive machine at 


the expense of the Society.” = 
ma i 
1 | 
\ 



























































































































































THE STOURBRIDGE LION 
First English locomotive on Delaware & Hudson track 
(From a drawing.) 


The First Railroad in the United States 


We have now arrived at the time when track and power 
were to be combined to give America its first railways. [To 
the Baltimore & Ohio belongs the honor of that historic con- 
junction of the elements that 
were to link the distant states - 
in the Union that was to 
prove indissoluble. At the 
ceremony. “for breakin & 
ground for this road on Julv 
aeie2s, Charles .Carroll voi 
Carrollton, then-in his 92d : 
year, }said: “I consider this MODEL OF FIRST ENGLISH LOCO. 

MOTIVE IMPORTED IN 1829. 
among the most important 
acts of my life; second only to that of signing the Declaration 
of Independence, if even second to that.” He lived to see it 
completed to the Point of Rocks, 73 miles from Baltimore. 

Originally operated as a horse railroad, the Baltimore & 
Ohio was the scene of the celebrated contest between a horse 
drawn car and the experimental locomotive “Tom Thumb” 
built by Peter Cooper. Unfortunately for the engine, the belt 
that worked Mr. Cooper’s contrivance for blowing the fire 
slipped off the drum at a critical stage of the race and before 
































BEFORE, THE. IRON. HORSE CAME 35 





it could be adjusted the old gray horse of the story came in 


-an easy winner. 
demonstrated its superiority, 
batrine) accidents,» over. the 
fleet animal that for ages had 
been the recognized symbol of 
speed and power. | The Balti- 
more & Ohio road was opened 
for traffic for 14 miles in 1830, 
the same year that Abraham 
Lincoln left his mother’s 
cabin to shift for himself, 


To Colonel Stevens of 
Hoboken is due the high 
honor of being the first con- 
Spicuous American to urge 
persistently the construction 
of locomotives on railways for 
long distance transportation 
on this continent. 
discouraged’ him. 


But even so, in this contest the iron horse 





























































































































































































































PETER, COOPER 


No successive disappointments daunted or 
He built and ran a steamboat nine years 


before Fulton built the “Clermont,” and also patented a multi- 
tubular boiler as early as 1803. Stevens built and operated the 





PETER COOPER’S “TOM THUMB” 


The first locomotive built by an 
American 


first engine that ever ran on 
wooden tracks in the United 
States. 


As early as 1811, Colonel 
Stevens had applied to the 
New Jersey legislature for a 
railroad charter. Failing in 
this, he tried to persuade the 
Erie canal commissioners, just 
appointed in New York, to 
build a railway instead of a 
canal across the state from 
Albany to Buffalo. But they 
were wedded to the waterway 


SO HISTORY -OF AMERICAN RAIEWAYS 





project, so once more the persistent colonel turned to the 
legislature of his own state, which this time, in 1815, 
granted him a charter, the first of its kind in the New World, 





THE RACE BETWEEN: A SNS eae PETER COOPER’S TOM THUMB 
1830. 


to build a railroad to join the Delaware and Raritan rivers, 
connecting at either end with steamboat lines for Philadel- 
phia and New York. His road did not materialize for the 
same reason that held similar schemes in leash—lack of con- 
fidence, credit and, more to 
the point; lack of cash, ~din- 
vestors were still shy of put- 
‘ting good money into an en- 
terprise where the investment 
was certain and irrevocable 
but the returns were at least 
problematical. In those days 
the necessary funds had to be 
secured by selling securities 
at a discount that would be 
> NOR considered prohibitive today. 

COL. JOHN STEVENS—1749-1838 
Obtained first charter to build an Amer- Colonel Stevens next di- 
eupiinde hoes veg rected his attention to Phila- 
delphia, where, through the aid of some of its business men, 
in 1823 he secured a charter to build a railroad from Phila- 
delphia to Columbia, a town on the Susquehanna twenty- 
seven miles south of Harrisburg. This charter contained 
several clauses of interest to this day. It was to be in force 
only ten years, the rails were to cross all pikes and roads on 
causeways and the company might charge seven cents a ton 





BEPC Rie dite KON HOOKS Eh. CAME 37 


per mile on freight moving westward and half that sum on 
freight bound east, an evident concession to the difference in 
grade. The State of Pennsylvania subsequently repealed this 
charter and itself assumed the burden of building a railroad 
threugh Lancaster to Columbia. 

In all the histories of those stirring times there is a plenti- 
ful lack of reliable data as to the cost of railway construction. 
The Quincy tramway is said 
to have cost “about $34,000,” 
or “about” $8,500. per mile. 
The powerful 7-ton locomo- 
tive, the “Stourbridge Lion,” 
built in England, already 
mentioned, was entered at the 
Custom House as having cost 
$4,869.59, “including freight 
duties and insurance ($2,-. 
914.90, according to Mr. 
Bercemrstpra )..- ana 4 eter 
Cooper’s “Tom Thumb” was 
said to have cost about $2,000 
to build. 


A few things about those SAILING CAR, TESTED ON THE 





primitive railroads are of in- NS eee age ga 
terest. Colonel Stevens had From Brown's History 


to lay a circular track to demonstrate that a locomotive 
could haul a train around curves; the first rails were long 
wooden stringers protected on the top from the wear of the 
wheels by strap iron nailed on, and the locomotives, weighing 
only a few tons, gave more promise of speed than of tractive 
power. Engineers still dcubted the adhesion of a smooth 
wheel on a smooth rail, which Trevithick had demonstrated 
twenty years before. The longest road actually under con- 
struction in 1830 was 135 miles, from Charleston to Hamburg, 
South Carolina. 

The common country highway of those days cost from 
$300 to $500 per mile to build, and it was estimated that it 
cost 25 cents to move a ton a mile on its normal surface. As 


38 HISTORY) OF VAMETTCGAN RAILWAYS 


the cost of these early turnpikes rose to $3,000 and $5,000, the 
cost of moving a ton was reduced to 20 cents a mile—from 
which cost it had not varied much until the motor truck on 
hard-surfaced highways, costing from $30,000 to $50,000 per 
mile, reduced the rate. | 


The First State Railway 


\ When the State of Pennsylvania took the construction of 
the Philadelphia & Columbia Railway off the hands of Colonel 
Stevens’ company, the line was finally located in 1828 and 
construction began in 1829. This was the first railway work 
undertaken by a State governments About twenty miles at 
the eastern end of the road was opened for travel in 1832 and 
the entire line, 81 miles, with two tracks, was completed by 
1834. Unlike the railways of today, the State owned only 
the track and rented its use for both passenger and freight 
cars to individuals or companies who furnished horses or 
mules to haul them, paying the State toll for the use of the 
track. At first the State owned two locomotives, for the use 
of which a regular toll was charged. | 

As originally built the Philadelphia & Columbia railway 
had two inclined planes. At about two miles from its com- 
mencement it crossed the Schuylkill by a viaduct 984 feet 
long and immediately ascended an inclined plane 2,805 feet 
long and 187 feet high. Another inclined plane 1,800 feet 
long and 90 feet high descended to meet the canal basin at 
Columbia. The inclines operated by stationary engines at the 
head of the planes were never satisfactory, being slow and 
expensive in operation, and they were scarcely finished before 
steps were taken to avoid them. They were abandoned in 


1840, and a new line built at the east end from Ardmore to 
West Philadelphia. 


State of the Union in 1830 


The year 1830 marks the true beginning of the railway 
era in the United States and it becomes of interest to con- 
sider the state of the Union in that period when the inventive 
genius of mankind was turned to the problem of putting 


BErOK eT Hee IKON, HORSE. CAME 2 


wheels, tracks and power under the civilization of the world. 
-For a comprehensive description of the vast territory that 
awaited the “snort of the iron horse’ to awaken it from the 
semi-paralysis of great distances, that by Henry Adams in his 
“American History During the First Administration. of 
Thomas Jefferson” leaves little to be said: 

“According to the census of 1800,” says Mr. Adams, ‘“‘the 
United States of America contained 5,308,483 persons—one- 
fifth of them negro slaves. 

“Even after two centuries of struggle, the land was still 
untamed. 

“The center of population rested within eighteen miles of 
Baltimore. 

“Except in political arrangement, the interior was little 
more civilized than in 1750 and was not much easier to pene- 
trate than when La Salle and Hennepin found their way to 
the Mississippi, more than a century before. 

“A great exception broke this rule. Two wagon roads 
crossed the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, while a 
third passed through Virginia southwestward to the Holston 
river and Knoxville in Tennessee. 

“Nowhere did eastern settlements touch the western. At 
least one hundred miles of mountainous country held the two 
regions everywhere apart. The shore of Lake Erie, where 
alone contact seemed easy, was still tnsettled. 

“The same bad roads and difficult rivers, connecting the 
same small towns, stretched into the same forests in 1800 as 
when the armies of Braddock and Amherst pierced the west- 
ern and northern wilderness. : 

“Even by water, along the seaboard, communication was 
as slow and almost as irregular as in colonial days. The voy- 
age to Europe was comparatively more comfortable and more 
regular than the voyage from New York to Albany. 

“If America was to be developed along the lines of water 
communication alone by such means as were known to Eu- 
rope, Nature had decided that the experiment of a single 
republican government must meet with extreme difficulties. 
By water, an Erie canal was already foreseen; by land, cen- 


40 HISTORY OF AMERICANS RAILWAY 


turies of labor could alone conquer those obstacles which 
Nature permitted to be overcome. Highways furnished no 
sure measure of progress. No matter how good the road, it 
could not compete with water, nor could heavy freights in 
great quantities be hauled long distances without extravagant 
cost. 

“At any known rate of travel Nashville could not» be 
reached in less than a fortnight or three weeks from Phila- 
delphia. 

“Politically each group of states lived a life apart. 

“In the Northern states four miles an hour was the aver- 
age speed between Bangor and Baltimore. Beyond the Poto- 
mac the roads became steadily worse, until south of Peters- 
burg even the mails were carried on horseback. 

“Of eight rivers between Monticello and Washington, Jef- 
ferson wrote, ‘five have neither bridges nor boats.’ 

“The usual charge (for passengers) in the Northern states 
was six cents a mile by stage. 

“The Saxon farmer of the eighth century enjoyed most 
of the comforts known to Saxon farmers of the eighteenth. 

“Fifty or a hundred miles inland more than half the homes 
were log ‘cabins, which might or might not enjoy the luxury 
of a glass window. (Abraham Lincoln was born in such a cabin 
in 1809 without ‘the luxury of a glass window.’) 

“As a rule American capital was absorbed in shipping or 
agriculture, whence it could not suddenly be withdrawn. No 
stock exchange existed and no broker exclusively engaged in 
stock jobbing, for there were few stocks. 

“A probable valuation of the whole United States in 1800 
was $1,800,000,000, equal to $328 for each human being, in- 
cluding slaves; or $418 to each free white. 

“Taxes amounted to little or nothing, and wages averaged 
about a dollar a day.” 

The picture thus painted of the United States in 1800 was 
destined to remain so until “Tom Thumbs,” “Puffing Billies” 
and “Best Friends,” as the five or six-ton locomotives of the 
late twenties were called, undertook the giant task of rolling 
back the American landscape like a scroll. 


BEPORE THE [RON’ HORSE CAME 4] 








In his “Democracy in America,” published as late as 1834, 
De Tocqueville, the French philosopher, spoke of the Missis- 
sippi valley as the most magnificent dwelling place prepared 
by God for man’s abode and “yet at present it is but a mighty. 
desert.” | 
































SIX-HORSE CONESTOGA WAGON—THE FORERUNNER OF THE 
“PRAIRIE SCHOONER” 


The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 extended our boundaries 
into the wilderness far beyond the Mississippi, only to make 
the demand for transportation greater than ever. 


Before the Railways Came 


By way of comparison it may be recalled that at the open- 
ing of the nineteenth century the cost of transportation by 





AN ARTIST’S VERSION OF THE CONESTOGA WAGON 
From a painting by N. H. Trotter. 


42 HISTORY OF \AMERICAN RAILWAYS. 


pack horses, the only way, from Philadelphia to Erie, both 
in Pennsylvania, was stated to be $249 a ton. Then came 
the dirt roads traveled by the Conestoga wagon, the fore- 
runner of the more famous prairie schooner of the sixties, 
and the cost dropped to 13.51 cents per ton mile. The mere 
toll on the early turnpikes was 1.35 cents per ton mile and the 
trader furnished his own cars or wagons and motive power. 
The standard rate for moving a ton on canals as late as 1832 
was 3 cents a mile. It was from the semi-paralysis of such 
rates that the railways rescued the American continent. 

The third decade of the 19th century dawned upon the 
Republic with less than 30 miles of railway actually built and 
operated. According to the census of 1830, this was equal 
to about one mile of railroad to 428,850 inhabitants, where, 
according to the latest returns, we now have a mile to about 
every 420. The contrast shows what the railways have done 
for this continent in less than a century. 


CHAPTER II 


THE FIRST DECADE OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS, 
1830 to 1840 


HYSICAL difficulties were not the only or chief obstacles 
in the path of the early railway promoters in America. 





CHARLES CARROLL OF 
CARROLLTON—1737-1832 


Signed the Declaration of Inde- 


pendence Aug. 2, 1776. Turned 
the first sod of the Baltimore & 
Ohio Railroad July 4, 1828. 


The canal mania occupied the 
center of the transportation 
stage well along through the 
thirties. Water carriage had 
the advantage of easy demon- 
stration, and the application 
of steam to river craft took 
precedence over land carriage 
until the smooth-surfaced 
track came to the aid of the 
primitive locomotive. What 
scanty surplus funds had ac- 
cumulated in America pre- 
ferred what appeared to be 


the safer investment, and the money markets of Europe looked 
askance upon investments in the wilds of the New World; 
which were still pictured, not without some reason, as the 


abode of savage and blood- 
thirsty Indians. In truth the 
North American Indian was 
still a menace and obstruction 
to railway building in the 
United States down to the 
days when the Union Pacific 
was built. 

The top of the stone mark- 
ing the spot in Baltimore 
where the first sod-for the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 





CORNERSTONE OF THE BALTI- 
MORE & OHIO RAILROAD, 1828 


OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


(pA S BOTS y 


44 


‘aVOWTIVa OIHO ® HHOWILIVA AHL AO NOILONUYLSNOD GNV NOILVZI 
“NVOUO AHL HLIM CHLOANNOO NYW GHHSINONILSIG ANV SYOLOEYIC ‘SYHCNNOA AHL 


40 DNILNIVd 





FIRST DECADE, 1830-1540 45 








was turned bears the following inscription, which has come 
to be of inestimable historic value: 


tes PONE 
PRESENTED BY THE STONE CUTTERS OF BALTIMORE 


in Commemoration of the Commencement of 
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was here 
placed on the 4th of July, 1828, by the Grand 
Lodge of Maryland, 

Assisted by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 
the last surviving signer of The Declaration 
of Independence, and under the direction of the 
President and Directors of the Railroad Company. 

In connection with this epoch-marking event the accom- 
panying reproduction of a painting in the Board Room of the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, furnished by the company, pos- 
sesses unusual historical interest. For identification, the best 
known personalities in this picture have been numbered, as 
follows: 

(1) Philip E. Thomas (1776-1861), First President B. & O. 
(2) Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832) 

(3) J. V. L. McMahon (1800-1871) 

(4) S. F. B. Morse (1791-1872) 

(5) Benj. H. Latrobe (1806-1874) 

(5) Peter Cooper (1791-1883) 

(7) John W. Garrett (1820-1884) 

(8) Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) 

(9) J. H. B. Latrobe (1830-1891) 

By the aid of a strong glass the reader can decipher, on 
the base of the picture, the names of the other figures in it. 

Mr. Garrett, who occupies such a prominent place in this 
group, came to the presidency of the Baltimore & Ohio in 
1858 and is credited with having rescued it from the verge 
of bankruptcy. 


What the Waterways Were Doing 


In the meantime large investments in canals made 
it diticult™ to. raise’ funds tor .the.primitive. rarlways. 
In soliciting bids for locomotives of American manufac- 
ture in an advertisement dated January 4, 1831, President 
Thomas of the B. & O. imposed the following conditions: 
That they should consume their own smoke. 


46 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








That they should not weigh over 3% tons. 
That they should each be capable of drawing 15 tons on 


a level road 15 miles an hour. 
That the wheel flanges should be on the inside of the rail. 
That the steam pressure should not exceed 100 lbs. to the 


square inch. 





CARROLL OBE GCARROLELON 
Enlarged from B. & O. group 


\ 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 47 


The least radius of curvature of the road was stated to be 
400 feet. 

“The York,” an engine built by Phineas Davis, met the 
general conditions but was found “too hight for advantageous 
use on ascending grades.” It is interesting to compare these 
conditions with the “Growth of Steam Locomotives” as illus- 
trated in succeeding pages of the history. 

Where the first Erie canal cost $20,000 pér mile of its 
four-foot depth and was deepened in 1835 to seven feet at 





PACKET BOAT ON THE OLD DELAWARE & HUDSON CANAL 


From a copyrighted reproduction by C. Klackuer, N. Y. of original oil painting by 
EB. L. Henry 


an added cost of $31,000,000, raising its total to $108,000 per 
mile, it was well-nigh impossible to raise funds, even at 
10 per cent and upwards, to build railways costing from $6,000 
to $25,000 per mile without rolling stock or adequate facilities. 

It has been officially estimated that a total of 4,468 miles 
of canal were built in the United States, costing $214,000,000. 
Of these, up to 1880, some 1,953 miles had been abandoned 
and the net income of the remaining 2,515 miles did not pay 1 
per cent on the cost of construction. 

The right of way for canals was later used in many places 
for railroads, and so the investment in this form of transpor- 
tation was not entirely lost, except to the original owners, but 
practically all of the capital put into the early turnpikes was 
lost, as only parts of some of them were later used for rail 
transportation. 

The standard rate for moving a ton on canals in 1832 was 
3 cents a mile. Previous to the opening of the Erie canal it 


/ 


48 HISTORY. OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





cost $100 to move a ton from New York to Buffalo, and 20 
days was consumed in transit. In northern tiers canals could 
be operated only seven or eight months. 


In connection with the charge for carrying freight on 
canals, it might be added that these rates generally were fol- 
lowed in subsequent charters given to railroads; the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company charter stating that its rate should 





WHEN TRAVELERS HAD TIME TO PAINT THE LANDSCAPE 
Before the age of photographs and railways 


not- exceed 2 cents per mile for each ton of freight =the rate 
for passengers being 3 cents per mile for “through” passen- 
gers, and 3% cents per mile for “way” passengers. 

Under such conditions the 61 miles of the Camden & Am- 
boy were projected in 1830, and $4,000,000 was subscribed—a 
large portion of which was to be expended on a canal; the 
Baltimore & Ohio was started on its successive short stages 
to the west; the Philadelphia & Columbia secured its charter, 
and the first section of the Charleston & Hamburg was opened. 
The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, upon which the celebrated 
DeWitt Clinton locomotive and train were to make a triai 
trip in 1831, was also among the first ventures of this period. 


FIRST DECADE, 1850-1840 49 





It was built to connect the 
Hudson at Albany with the 
Erie Canal at Schenectady at 
a cost of $600,000, or $38,000 
per mile. 

Contemporary with the en- 
gine built by Robert Steph- 
enson for the Mohawk & 
Hudson road was the “John 
Bull. ordeted = by =Colonel 
stevens for “thes Camden: & 
“Amboy Railroad and Trans- 
portation Company in 1831 
and put into service on No- 
vember 12 of that year at Bor- 








ROBERT L.-STEVENS, 1787-1856 


Designer of the first “‘T rail’? and the 


“hook head” spike 


dentown, N. J. After being out of service for many years, 
-on April 17, 1893, it was once more put in commission to haul 
what was known as the “John Bull” train to the Chicago 


World's Fair. 





tae PERS Te ERA 


The shaded section is Stevens’ original 
design as whittled in wood in 1830: The 
unshaded shows rail as made in England 
laid in the Camden & Amboy road, 1831. 


The train consisted of two of the original 


Camden & Amboy coaches 
andr mace. the. trie Ong 
miles without assistance in 
five days—which. was fine 
work for a 62-year old engine. 

The DeWitt Clinton was 
built for the Mohawk & Hud- 
sole Katlroad, tne 
company of the present New 
York Central Lines, at the 
West Point foundry in 1831, 
the year in which the road 
was opened from Albany to 
schenectady.:-’ The 


pioneer 


familiar 


cut of the famous engine, with its train of old-fashioned stage 
coach pattern cars, is from a silhouette cut by Brown on the 


spot. 


The original of the cut is now in the Museum of the 


Ilistorical Society at Hartford, Conn. 


50 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





These may be regarded as the seedlings from which have 
sprung the mightiest system of railways in the world. All 
told, they are credited with only 23 miles of line in actual 
operation in 1830. Aside from the Baltimore & Ohio, which 
has held to its title through the intervening ninety years, these 





TAY = lOHN= BOE 
Built in 1831 and now in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 


daring ventures are now respectively important divisions of 
the Pennsylvania System, the Southern Railway and the New 
York Central. 

The coming of the advance agent of American industry 
and civilization was first announced on this continent by the 
shriek of the locomotive in the year 1831, “when the applica- 
tion of steam to blow a horn was first invented.” 

The Charleston & Hamburg, in point of performance, is 
entitled to precedence in the list of railways operated by 





ANOTHER VIEW OF THE “JOHN. BULE? 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 51 








steam in the United States. It was chartered in 1827, and by 
January 1, 1830, six miles of road were ready for the first 
practical locomotive built in America. This was patterned 
after the “Stourbridge Lion,” which had proved too heavy 





THE “JOHN BULL” AS IT MADE: THE. TRIP TO CHICAGO IN 1893 


for the trestles of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in 
August, 1829, and was built by Horatio Allen, who had assem- 
bled the parts of the discarded “Lion” when it arrived from 
England. The locomotive was christened the “Best Friend” 
of Charleston and was shipped to Charleston by packet in 
October, where it promptly ran off the track during its trial 
trip. It was of this locomotive that engineers like to tell 





THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE AND TRAIN RUN IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 


This sketch of the silhouette as it appeared in Brown’s ‘History of Early. Locomotives 
in America’? was accompanied by the following note: The locomotive “De Witt Clin- 
ton’? was ordered by John B. Jervis, chief engineer of the Mohawk and Hudson rail- 
road, and was the third locomotive built in America for actual service upon a railroad. 
The machine was made at the West Point Foundry Works in New York, taken to 
Albany the latter part of June, 1831, and was put upon the road and run by David 
Matthew. The first experimental trial-trip was made on the 5th of July, and others 
at difieren: times during that month. The first excursion trip, with a train of pas- 
senger-cars, was made from Albany to Schenectady on August 9, 1831, on which oc- 
casion the author of this History of the Early Locomotives in America rode in ore of 
the cars (only the first two are represented above), and before the train started made 
the sketch as it appears above, which was pronounced a truthful representation of the 
locomotive, tender, and the first two of the number of cars in the train, and correct 
likenesses of the engineer and passengers represented in the cars. Some of them are 
yet living, as their letters in this work will show. The picture was cut out of black 
paper with a pair of scissors, a peculiar art with’ which the author was gifted from _his 
earliest boyhood. The original was presented by the author to the Connecticut His- 
torical Society; it was about six feet in length, and is yet preserved by the society 
and highly valued for its antiquity and truthfulness. 


LIBRARY waynes 


By 4 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





the story that a negro sat on the safety valve until its boiler 
burst, projecting itself and the surprised Ethiopian twenty- 
five feet. The engineer and two negroes were injured, but 
none fatally. 





DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN AND A MODERN LOCOMOTIVE 


Nothing daunted, the company ordered a duplicate of its 
“Best. Friend” called the “West Point,” which was put in 
regular service early in 1831. This road was renamed the 

South Carolina Railroad. The 

expense of rebuilding it after 

the war forced it into a re- 
ceivership in 1878, and after 
sale under foreclosure it was 
reorganized in 1881 as the 

South Carolina Railway, the 
convenient way of giving an 
old road a new name. 

It was on this road that 
the experiment of the trac- 
tive power of sails was tried 
with anything but satisfac- 
factory results. 

The Charleston & Hamburg 
Railroad was a community 
enterprise organized, promot- 
ed and financed by the citi- 
zens of Charleston. It was 
proposed to rectify the freak of despiteful Nature that emptied 
the waters and water-borne cotton of the Savannah River 





INCLINED PLANE AT MAUCH 
CHUNK, PA. 
Lehigh Valley R. R. 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 SB 





at Savannah instead of Charleston. The survey of this road 
is instructive, giving an almost straight line from Charleston 


to Aiken, South Carolina, and thence with a sharp bend drop- 
ping some 180 feet by an incline 3,800 feet down to the Savan- 


nah River opposite Augusta, then as now one of. the great 
cotton centers of the South. 





ANOTHER VIEW OF THE DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN 


The road was financed almost entirely by private subscrip- 
tions. The municipality backed it with a small loan of $20,000. 
Built on the most economical basis, the bare roadbed and 
track were estimate to cost slightly under $600,000. When 
the bills were all paid, they figured up to $904,499, or exactly 
$5,625.92 per mile. The miscalculation arose, according to 
the annalist, from “the heightened cost of labor.” 

When completed the Charleston & Hamburg’s 136 miles of 
track “was the longest railway in the world; and its operation 
was considered marvelous at the time.” Owing to the lack 
of power, the company handled only. cotton downward and 
light merchandise upward. Live stock, lumber and other 
articles that could pay only low rates, so the legend runs, 
“Were, declined fora time, --lhe passenger rates. fixed ‘by 
the legislature were said to be so low “that a poor man could 
not afford to walk.” 


Cay 
Al a 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





This road is now a division of the Southern Railway 
System. 

The Columbia & Philadelphia had quite a chequered career 
before it became the main stem of the modern Pennsylvania 
System. Mention has been made of how this road was project- 
ed by Colonel Stevens, who got no farther. The legislature 
having repealed the charter 
granted Stevens in 1823, the 
state of Pennsylvania assumed 
the task of building a railroad 
from Philadelphia through 
Lancaster to Columbia, on 
the Susquehanna river ite 
line was located in 1828 and 
construction began“ in =the 
year following. 

This was the first railway 
work undertaken and prose- 
cuted by a State government 
in America. Immediately on 














ORIGINAL DRAWING OF 


“BEST FRIEND” i i i isan 
First American Locomotive built for leaving Philadelphia this line 
actual use used what was known as the 


Belmont Inclined Plane just west of the railroad bridge over 
the Schuylkill river in West Philadelphia, and also a plane 





THE BELMONT INCLINED PLANE 
West Philadelphia 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 Se 








at the Columbia end, which 
was subsequently abandoned, 
and a new line built at the 
east end from Ardmore to 
West - Philadelphia. About 
twenty miles at the eastern 
end was opened for travel in 
TOSo: and by 1834 the entire Passenger Coach used on the Portage 
line, donbleerected tron ihe Railroad over the Alleghanies in 1835 
start, was completed. At first the power was furnished by 
horses and mules; private parties owned the passenger and 
freight cars and paid toll to the State for the use of its tracks. 
At this stage there was a strong resemblance between the 
railway and the highway, which has now wholly disappeared 
except for oratorical effect. At Columbia the rail ride ended 

















as we 4 bie -p E 4 « y) 
y : ; 
aes LEN A: 














THE BEST FRIEND AND TRAIN 


This engine was built in New York City for the South Carolina Railroad in 1830 and 
made an excursion trip as above on January 15th, 1831. 


and the traveler took a canal packet up the river to the mouth 
of its tributary, the Juniata, thence up that stream to Holli- 
daysburg. Cars proceeded from here four miles to the foot 
of the Alleghenies. 

rom here let Charles Dickens describe what ‘hap- 
pened, as told in his “American Notes” of his visit to the 
United States in 1842: 

“We left Harrisburg on Friday. On Sunday morning we 
“arrived at the foot of the mountain, which is crossed by rail- 
“road. There are ten inclined planes; five ascending, and 
“five descending; the carriages are dragged up the former, 
“and let slowly down the latter, by means of stationary 
“engines; the comparatively level spaces between being 


56 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





“traversed, sometimes by horse and sometimes by engine 
“power, as the case demands. Occasionally the rails are laid 
“upon the extreme verge of a giddy precipice; and looking 
“from the carriage window, the traveller gazes sheer down, 
“without a stone or scrap of fence between, into the mountain 
“depths below.” 

And he tells how they “rattled down a steep pass, having 
“no other moving power than the weight of the carriages 
“themselves and saw the engine released long after us come 
“buzzing down alone, like a great insect, its back of green 





EARLY AMERICAN .RAILS AND TRACKS 


No. 1 on the Pennsylvania portage of 1832 
No. 2 first track on the Camden & Amboy in 1831 


“and gold shining in the sun, that if it had spread a pair of 
“wings and soared away, no one would have had occasion, 
“as I fancied, for the least surprise. But it stopped short of 
“us in a very business-like manner when we reached the 
“canal; and before we left the wharf, went panting up the 
“hill again, with the passengers who had waited our arrival 
“for the means of traversing the road by which we had come.” 


From that point the novelist took a canal packet on to 
Pittsburgh and thence on by steamboat to Cincinnati, at that 
time described by him as “a beautiful city” of fifty thousand 
souls, “cheerful, thriving and animated.” 

Anyone who wishes to get a definite impression of travel 
by side-wheel ocean steamer from Liverpool via Halifax to 
Boston, “out eighteen days,” and by rail and steamboat south 
to Richmond and west as far as St. Louis should hunt up 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 of 


Dickens’ “American Notes.” They may make the reader 
angry, for the writer extenuated nothing, but took in every- 
thing with the eye of London’s greatest newspaper reporter. 


The Lure of the West 


Maryland responded to Pennsylvania’s great feat of cross- 
ing the Alleghenies by enacting a bill in 1836 that authorized 
a loan of eight million dollars 
in aid of a comprehensive 
scheme to build railroads and 
canals to connect Baltimore 

WROUGHT IRON RAIL CHAIR arc he Ohi dee riveree he 
method of constructing the Baltimore & Ohio is thus described 
in an official report in 1832: 





“A line of road is first graded, free from short curves and 
as nearly level as possible. A small trench is then formed 
for each track, which is filled with rubble stone, on which 
are laid blocks of granite or other suitable stone about one 
foot square and of as great length as can be obtained. ‘The 
upper and inner surfaces of each track are dressed perfectly 
even, as well as the ends of the blocks at their joinings. Bars 
or plates of wrought iron, near an inch in thickness, are 
then laid on these blocks or rails, in line with the inner sur- 
faces, and fastened to the stone with bolts or rivets, entering 





STONE BLOCKS. USED INSTEAD OF TIES IN EARLY CONSTRUCTION OF 
THE PHILADELPHIA & READING RAILWAY 


58 HISTORY OF AMERIGAN RAILWAYS 





about four inches in holes fitted to receive them, at a dis- 
tance of about eighteen inches. The distance between the 
two tracks, for the wheels, should be about five feet.” 

The cost of a road like this, sans rolling stock, stations, 
etc., was figured at $28,173 per mile. 

The stream of emigration to the west at this period was 
sweeping the industrious poor from the Atlantic coast in 
hordes that demanded more rapid transportation than canal 
boats and pack mules could furnish; and Europe was called 
on to furnish construction 
funds on State guarantees at 
any rate of interest. The 
State of Indiana alone in 1836 
provided for the construction 
of over 1,200 miles of rail- 
road and canal, to cost up- 
ward of twenty million dol- 
Slap yee: eri ee aoe Er eee LARS een Gam allt Otte ee ee 
Rint Agee tit ets stock to the amount of ten 
million dollars to be issued and sold abroad,” as the historian 
McMasters dryly remarks. And he continues, “The system 
of internal improvements on which IIlniois now (1836) en- 
tered was, if possible, wilder still.” 

The West was now growing at a tremendous pace. Be- 
tween 1830 and 1840 Indiana had almost doubled in popula- 
tion, from 343,031 to 685,886, while the rate of increase in the 
younger State of Illinois was 
even greater, having more 
than trebled from 157,445 to 
476,183. Chicago was incor- 
porated as a city in 1837, with 
a population of 4,170 and one 
newspaper, the Chicago Dem- 
ocrait, merged into the Chi- 
cago Tribune in 1841.  Dick- 
ens returned from St. Louis IMPROVED BOX Cae 
to Cincinnati via Louisville, the way he had come, apparently 
never having heard of Chicago! 








FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 59 





Baldwin’s First Locomotive 


Among the noted group of locomotives that claimed prece- 
dence in the early history of American railways must not be 


overlooked—“Old Ironsides,” the pioneer handiwork of the 
house of Baldwin, whose product stretches in an uninterrupted 


line from 1832 to this day. Matthias Baldwin, its construc- 
tor, was a jeweler and watch 
repairer of Philadelphia, with 
a limited knowledge of me- 
Guinicses Dut che ~had. the 
genius and persistence to at- 
tempt anything in the me- 
chanical line that crossed his 
vision. The jewelry trade 
falling off, Mr. Baldwin be- 
came a partner in the manu- 
facture of binders, tools and 
cylinders for calico printing. 
This proved so_ successful 
that the service of steam pow- 
er was necessary to supply 
iS BOOGIE eee ne Bald- i tATTHIAS W. BALDWIN—1795-1866 
win undertook to design an Inventor and founder of the Baldwin 
engine for that purpose. The EE herp ie 

firm’s space being limited, an upright model was adopted. 
The machine was so successful that it turned his attention to 
steam engineering and thus undoubtedly directed his thoughts 
to the engine on rails along which he was to go so far. At 
the suggestion of a fellow townsman he built a diminutive 
model of a steam locomotive which actually pulled two small 
four-seated cars around a circular track in the Philadelphia 
Museum in April, 1831. This demonstration led the directors 
of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad 
(now a part of the Philadelphia & Reading System) to engage 
Mr. Baldwin to build a full-sized locomotive to supplant horse 
power on their road. The parts of the “John Bull,” imported 
from England for the Camden & Amboy Railroad, had just 
arrived, and before they were put together Baldwin availed 
















































































































































































= 


























































































































































































































60 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


himself of the opportunity to make an intimate and criticai 
study of them. ‘Then he went back and built “Old Ironsides,” 
which on November 23, 1832, gave a successful demonstration. 

As described in the “History of the Baldwin Locomotive 
Works,” “Old Ironsides” was a four-wheeled engine, modeled 
essentially on English practice of that day, as shown in the 
“Planet” class, and weighed, in running order, something over 





“OLD IRONSIDES” 


The first Baldwin Locomotive completed in 1832 for the Philadelphia Germantown 
& Northern Railroad 


five tons. The rear or driving wheels were fifty-four inches 
in diameter on a crank axle placed in front of the firebox. The 
cranks were thirty-nine inches from center to center. The 
front wheels, which were simply carrying wheels, were forty- 
five inches in diameter on an axle placed just back of the 
cylinders. The cylinders were nine and one-half inches in 
diameter by eighteen inches stroke and were attached hori- 
zontally to the outside of the smoke-box, which was D-shaped, 
with the sides receding inwardly, so as to bring the center 
line of each cylinder in line with the center of the crank. The 
wheels were made of heavy cast iron hubs, wooden spokes 
and rims and wrought iron tires. The frame was of wood, 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 61 


placed outside the wheels. The boiler was thirty inches in 
diameter and contained seventy-two copper flues, one and 
one-half inches in diameter and seven feet long.’ The tender 
was a four-wheeled platform, with wooden sides and back, 
carrying an iron box for a water tank, inclosed in a wooden 
casing and with a space for fuel in front. The locomotive 
showed twenty-eight miles an hour on its trial trip and sub- 
sequently attained thirty miles an hour with its usual train 
attached. Mr. Baldwin was to have received $4,000, but 
owing to some defects in performance compromised on $3,500. 

From that halting success ninety-two years ago, the first 
effort of an unskilled mechanic, has descended the long line 
of locomotives that has carried the name of their builder 
around the globe. 

In 1836 William Norris demonstrated that his locomotive 
could ascend the Schuylkill 
inclined plane at the rate of 
ten miles an hour. This plane 
had a. grade of 359 feet to the 
mile. 

The labor cost of running 
the railways in those early 
days may be judged from the 
pay roll of the Parkersburg 
shops (Philadelphia & Co- 
lumbia Railroad), where 31 
employes, consisting of 1 manager, 1 foreman, 13 machinists, 
3 blacksmiths, 1 coppersmith, 2 file makers, 1 pattern maker, 
3. carpenters, 1 stationary engineer, 4 assistants and 1 watch- 
man, received $1,087, or $35 a month per man. At the same 
time enginemen received $2 a day and firemen $1.25. 


New York’s Belated Start 











BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE—1834 


New York City, with its outlook to the sea, its island- 
locked sound to New England and its North river, the Hud- 
son, to the interior of the State, had more faith in waterways 
and their connecting canals than in the steam and iron roads 
that met with such popular enthusiasm to the North and 


62 HISTORY, OF AMERICAN] RAILWAYS 


South. Its first railroad, the New York & Harlem, was not 
chartered until April, 1831, and was not opened until January, 
1833. It was projected to run from New York to Chatham, 
via Dover Plains, 130 miles, but the first eight miles from 
near the City Hall to the Harlem river was the section that 
counted and justified its title. 7 

The New York of 1831 (p. 390) was a modest but aspiring 














Pioneer of the American Locomotive Co.’s line 


village of some 200,000 souls. It occupied the southern end of 
Manhattan Island. The trip to the “Harlem Strait,” as it was 
then properly called, was like a journey into a far country. 
So it 1s not surprising to read that the route of this first met- 
ropolitan railway, leaving City Hall Square, passed along 
Center and Broome streets, and thence via Fourth avenue to 
the Harlem. It was the boast of its builders that its first 
section of eight miles cost $1,100,000, or $137,500 per mile, 
being the most expensive piece of railway property in the 
United States prior to 1839. 


FIRST DECADE, 1850-1840 63 


In 1873 this road was leased to the New York Central & 
Hudson River Railroad. The lease included: the tracks to 
42d Street and the Grand Central Depot, but “not the horse 
railroad on Fourth Avenue.” For years the company pre- 
served its charter from lapsing by running a box car from 
42d to Chambers Street, to which the writer was a witness in 
1879, when, returning from a midnight assignment for the 





REPRESENTATIVE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE OF 1839 


New York Tribune, he saw this solitary sentinel car propelled 
down the Bowery by a Julien motor and storage battery. 

It is one of the paradoxes of American railways that the 
New York Central Railroad, which was to become one of the 
chief factors in American rail transportation, for the better 
part of half a century had no entrance of its own into New 
York City. If the student will consult a map of New York, 
he will perceive at a glance that the New York & Harlem 
road was headed not up the Hudson but.as far from it as the 
Massachusetts line would permit and was destined to reach 


64 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Albany over the Boston & 
Albany via Chatham Junc- 
tion. This idiosyncracy was 
undoubtedly due to New 
York’s early and unshaken 
faith in the Hudson as the 
direct line from the Island of 
PRIMITIVE BAGGAGE CAR Manhattan into the wilder- 
PSadebn & adnspois akeed | 1S Oo a 
not until 1846 that it turned 
its eyes to that inviting valley that pierced the state between 
the Catskills and the Berkshire Hills, and petitioned the legis- 
lature to charter the Hudson River Railroad. This road was 
opened from New York to Albany, 144 miles, in 1851. 





ie . oe fe - ne 


aso | 


‘ . Se 
: aN r 


¢ 
i. 
e 


4 ae berory 
™\}/D 


x! i Ln 9, Ws iS 
ohn = ILI salt Zsa 101 faye L\ <i 


PA Awe /A\IN 5 ( 





77 OTN 


Sey// > 





NORRIS FREIGHT ENGINE 


Anticipating the course of this history, it may be remarked 
that the completion of the Hudson River Railroad prepared 
the way for the consolidation of the several independent lines 
that had finally connected Albany with Buffalo. There were 
as many of these as there were shades in Joseph’s coat oi 
many colors. The Albany & Schenectady, chartered in 1826, 
naturally headed the list; then came the Schenectady & Troy; 
the Utica & Schenectady; the Syracuse & Utica (the Syra- 


FIRST. DECADE, 1850-1840 65 


cuse & Utica direct); the Rochester & Syracuse (direct) ; the 
Auburn & Syracuse; the Auburn & Rochester; the Buffalo 
and Lockport; the Mohawk Valley; the Rochester, Lockport 
& Niagara Falls, and the Buffalo & Rochester. With the 
acquisition of the Hudson River Railroad, the consolidation 
of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad was com- 
plete from New York to Buffalo and went into effect on Au- 








A STUDY IN CONTRASTS 
A coal car in 1830 and a coal car of today 


gust 1, 1853. The enumerated links in this New York Cen- 
tral chain were so many independent companies, each proud 
of its own primitive facilities and each jealous of its connec- 
‘tions. Passengers had to disembark at the end of each road 
and take passage on, the next link, when its conductor was 
ready to start. 

Its further extension to Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago and 
St. Louis is another story. Up to the close of 1840, parts of 
the New York Central System had not penetrated beyond 
Rochester. 

The New York & Erie 


Surely a spiteful fairy presided over the birth of the New 
York & Erie Railroad, the forerunner of the great trunk line 
that, after many vicissitudes, was to connect New York with 


66 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Chicago. Its charter ran from tidewater to Lake Erie, but 
unfortunately the State of New Jersey lay between its project- 
ed line and tidewater at Jersey City. It had therefore to be 
content with such tidewater as ebbed and flowed at Pier- 
mont, which derived its name from a pier one mile long jut- 
ting out into the Hudson some twenty-five miles from the 
promised terminal in New York city. If the State of New 





UNIQUE PASSENGER TICKET ISSUED IN 183? 


By steamer to Albany, by rail to Schenectady, by canal boat to Buffalo—Note the re- 
striction on baggage 


Jersey had been less jealous of its big neighbor, the “Story 
of Erie” might have been far different from the “chapter” told. 
in the famous brochure written by Charles F. Adams thirty- 
odd years later. Even Mr. Adams had to place the tribute 
of foresight on the “citizens who originated and _ forced 
through to completion this great national work, as important 
as was ever the Appian Way to Rome.” 

“The road was in truth,” he wrote, “a magnificent enter- 
prise, worthy to connect the great lakes with the great sea- 
port of America. Scaling lofty mountain ranges, running 
through fertile valleys, and by the banks of broad rivers, con- 
necting the Hudson, the Susquehanna, the St. Lawrence and 
the Ohio, it stood forth a monument at once of engineering 
skill and commercial enterprise.” But, like a certain man 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 67 











journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, the Erie fell among 
thieves, who stripped it and left it for dead. Every attempt 
to revive it has run into a business depression or panic. And, 
although today it runs through that same favored region, 
renders good service to its territory and earns substantial 
revenues per mile, it barely meets operating expenses and 
fixed charges. 

The total cost of the 394 miles of railway built in New 





ele ARrIAN WAY? AS IT STILL EXISTS 


York State between 1832 and 1840, inclusive, was estimated 
at $9,578,965. 
Early New England Roads 


The first railway in Massachusetts, as well as in the United 
States, was appropriately enough an industrial tramway. It 
ran from Bryant quarries about three miles to tidewater at 
Neponset and was used to transport blocks of granite by 
horse power. Its construction is interesting beyond the fact 
that it carried the stone for Bunker Hill monument. Its own 
tracks were laid on the same granite material. These stone 
sleepers were placed eight feet apart. On these, great wooden 
rails a foot high and six inches thick were laid. Flat strips 
of iron three inches wide and a quarter of an inch thick were 
fastened by spikes to the top of the wooden beams. And so 
the first railroad in America was equipped for business. Rail- 
way, in the modern sense of the word, this little granite road 
of Massachusetts never was. It was operated by gravity and 


68 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








horse power and never rose to the dignity of a railroad until 
it was purchased by the Old Colony Company in 1872, when 
it was relaid with T-rails and the steam whistle re-echoed 
among the boulders on its ancient right of way. 

Mention of the Old Colony Railroad introduces the reader 
to a group of familiar names associated with the early his- 
tory of New England railways. 





CLAIMED TO BE “THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY DEPOT IN AMERICA” 
It stood, until recently, at the top of Crane Street hill, Schenectady, New York, being 


a one-story brick structure with a chimney at either end. 

First of these was the Boston & Lowell, chartered in 1830 
and opened for the twenty-six miles to Lowell in 1834. The 
rails for this line were laid on stone blocks, which in turn 
rested on deep foundations of broken stone. 

Its companion road, the Boston & Worcester, then as now 
forty-four miles from the Hub to Worcester, was built in the 
same substantial manner and both were soon found to be too 
rigid and inelastic for comfortable riding. This mistake was 
avoided in the construction of the Boston & Providence, 
where wooden sleepers were laid from the first, thus render- 
ing the subsequent relaying of ties unnecessary. 

These three Massachusetts roads employed horse power 
on their earlier sections. In the spring of 1834 the Worcester 
road invested in two locomotives, appropriately named the 
“Meteor” and the “Rocket.” One of these was capable of 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 69 


doing twenty miles an hour. They made two trips daily from 

Washington Street to Newton, eight, nine or ten miles, ac- 
cording to which of the famous Newtons was the first termi- 
nation of the track. The fare was 37% cents each way, show- 
ing the survival of the old York shilling, which afterwards 
became the “bit,” or 12% cents, in California as late as the 
seventies. 





PEEKSKILL LANDING ON THE HUDSON IN 1837 


The first train to make the whole trip to Worcester, con- 
sisting of a locomotive and one passenger car, was run on 
July 3, 1835, to be in readiness for the formal opening on 
Independence Day, when four locomotives made two round 
trips, carrying, all told, 1,500 travelers for the celebration. 

The fare was $1.50 for the trip, where formerly it had been 
$2 by stage. An enterprising merchant of Worcester was 
so impressed with the advantages of the new means of trans- 
portation that he immediately offered to build a side track 
to his storehouse. | 

The Boston & Providence was opened a few days before 
the formal opening of the Boston & Worcester, but owing to 


70 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





some difficulty in getting its one locomotive to work, horses 
had to be hitched up to the company’s two passenger cars. 
But June 2, 1835, the day set for the steam railway trip, was 
made forever memorable by the combination of stage and 
steamboat transport from Boston to New York in less than 
sixteen hours. In this signal performance Cornelius Vander- 
bilt participated by building the fine but ill-fated steamboat 
: ‘“Texineton, +.) Lizinadescom- 
nections at Providence with 
passengers who Started from 
Boston by stage at 2 A. M. 
and landed them in New 
Y ork at6-P AM eel Bie sas 
ington” was destroyed by 
fire “on January 12,2 1640, 
with a loss of 120 lives. 

As soon as the Boston & 
Providence locomotive was 
put in running order, the 
time of June 2, 1835, was 
quickly eclipsed, and from 
that day until’ an all rail 
route was opened in Decem- 
ber, 1848, the rail and water 
passage between Boston and 
New York, via Providence, had things its own way. 

With the combination of rail and steam boat in 1835, the 
gap between Boston and New York was reduced from four 
days to about fourteen hours, but the rivalry was not lessened. 
The two seaports engaged in a desperate race to see which 
should be first to get to Albany by rail. 

Of equal interest with the water and rail connection be- 
tween Boston and New York is the introduction of the name 
of Cornelius Vanderbilt in this narrative. Although at the 
time of building the “Lexington” he was forty-one, he had not 
entered upon his career as the foremost railroad manager and 
financier of his time. His forte, as Artemus Ward would say, 
was steamboats. While still a lad in his teens he bought a 





FIRST DECADE, 1850-1840 71 


ferryboat and ran it so successfully between Staten Island and 
New York that it was not long before he acquired a small 
fleet of ferryboats and was known about New York harbor 
as the “Commodore.” He had what might be termed 
the Vanderbilt or Midas touch that turned everything he 
handled on sea or dry land into gold. By the time he was 
just over fifty his ventures in ship-building and managing 
had amassed what for those days was the vast fortune esti- 
mated at $10,000,000. 

Then he took to railroading and in a very short time be- 
came the leader in land transportation. He first bought a 
controlling interest in the New York & Harlem road and, 
having acquired the essential entrance into the heart of Man- 
hattan Island, he annexed the principal interest in the Hudson 
River Railroad and eventually in the New York Central. He 
was the moving spirit in the consolidation of the independent 
railroads between Albany and Buffalo, and ultimately ex- 
tended the sway of the New York Central System over the 
Lake Shore, the Canada Southern and the Michigan Central 
to Zhicago:.UVor fiiteen, years,.from 1862-tosthe time, of his 
death, in 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt was the dominating 
figure in American railway affairs. 


The Panic of 1837 


But the railways of the United States were not to go 
through the first decade of their feverish existence without 
experiencing some of the throes generally attendant on over- 
doing anything. The initial cost of construction of the early 
railroads and canals had imposed a heavy burden upon the 
capital and industry of the country. In projecting new roads 
they overshot current demands. As a result, according to 
Poor’s Manual, in many states, especially Western and South- 
ern, large sums of money were expended upon lines from 
which there was no return, while many, approaching comple- 
tion, were wholly abandoned. Charters and work begun in 
1834-1836 were held in abeyance, not to be revived until along 
in the early forties, when the effects of the panic of 1837 be- 
gan to wear off. 


72 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The case of the Galena & Chicago Union, the predecessor 
of the Chicago & North Western, is illustrative of the railway 
condition prevailing throughout the country at this time. It 
had received a special charter from the legislature of Illinois 
in January, 1836, to build a railroad out into the prairie coun- 
try toward the Mississippi. Under an amended charter a 
short preliminary survey was made and the company ob- 
tained 940 acres of woodland nine miles west of Chicago to 
secure a source of fuel supply. “Then,” says the historian 
of the period, “the financial ‘panic,’ beginning in the summer 
of 1837, put a stop to this and many other railroad projects 
not only in Illinois but all over the United States.” 

The actual construction of the Galena & Chicago Union 
was not resumed until 1847. In the meantime Chicago had 
been incorporated and quadrupled in population—from 4,179 
in 1837 to 16,859 in 1847. It was only a few years earlier 
(1833) that the historian Charles Cleaver “saw many teams 
stuck fast in the streets of the village” and “remembered that 
once a stagecoach got mired in Clark Street, opposite the 
Sherman House, where it remained several days with a board 
driven into the mud bearing the inscription, ‘No bottom here’.” 

Today Chicago is the greatest railway center in the world, 
from which radiate more than 90,000 miles of railway to every 
corner of the Union. 


Michigan Tries Railway Ownership 


It was the financial collapse of 1837 that induced the State 
of Michigan to take over the construction of the railways it 
had already chartered and assisted in the preliminary stages. 
These roads were the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, chartered 
in 1833 (now merged through the Lake Shore into the New 
York Central System), and the Detroit & St. Joseph, char- 
tered in 1836 (the original Michigan Central). The latter 
company was capitalized at $2,000,000, but no work had been 
done on it when the State of Michigan undertook its com- 
pletion. By the aid of successive appropriations, this road 
was completed to Kalamazoo, 144 miles. In December, 1844, 
when 110 miles of the Central had been completed and some 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 73 





terminal work on the Southern was in progress, the joint 
enterprise had cost Michigan the following amounts: 


WolitfalPeOUs TUCTIONE. tr ore Uta ead ee ere Oa EES PENS $1,842,308 
pote eae Mie OUST TUIC TIO I Tae dec aeteh che Gey SOS ea aR oh vin Shaw ole pioedee 936,295 
$2,778,603 
10 per cent for interest and other incidental expenses........ 277,860 
aay oe cre ta ek Ota I clteeiNC MOCO meee oa. = oe coeds d alee gts 30,000 
ig6eoinotive.: andvcars-on Centtal- Re R.. 2. sce iic. $110,000 
fee VO ies tier tre sat 8 (idste t wcclploM cic aca be ake ok oe 51,000 161,000 
Sicewee Ven peer eee eee ete te Ree os Gesu idl ot A w dpe he Brave eg ae eae a $3,247,463 


Governor Barry recommended the sale of the roads, to 
which the Legislature agreed, and they were subsequently 
sold to Boston capitalists for $2,000,000 and $500,000, respec- 
tively. Payment was made in state bonds at their face, which 
the purchasers had shrewdly bought in at 70 cents on the 
dollar, thereby securing property that had cost at least three 
and a half million for $1,750,000. Query, what would be con- 
sidered the original cost of that road? 

Such were the bargains that were scattered all over the 
country by the panic of 1837, to be snapped up by the thrifty 
capitalists who had the courage of their faith in the future of 
railroads in the United States. They had their reward, and 
_ had not long to wait for it, either. ; 


Summary of the First Decade 


Nothing in the amazing expansion of transportation by 
rail on this continent equals, in all that constitutes the Ameri- 
can character, the period whose salient features have so far 
been briefly sketched. The mental alertness and daring with 
which every invention and opportunity was seized on and 
adjusted to the peculiar conditions of this country were 
everywhere in evidence. Steam power, applied at first on the 
-water and then on the land; the locomotive adapted or simul- 
taneously invented in American shops; the experiments with 
rails, ties and foundations that finally were replaced by the | 
wooden sleepers, stone ballast and T-rails that we have with 
us today; the rivalry between canals and railways that held 
over into the next generation; the actual moving of American 
civilization dependent on speedy and powerful transportation 


74 HISTORY OF: AMERICAN SRAILWAYS 





from the fringe of Eastern States to the valley of the Missis- 
sippi—it was all a part of the development of Anglo-Saxon 
traits in a new world, under conditions that never before 
confronted mankind, but for which mankind had been wait- 
ing and preparing from the dawn of time. What happened 
on this continent between 1830 and 1840 cannot be more 
clearly expressed than by the figures of population and rail- 
way mileage during that period: 3 


United States—1830 to 1840 


Population Miles of Railway 
LB OY oases er fe Goa he i aha 12,866,020 ge 20 
OSE a cE See we eer eae aoe 13,252,000 95 
O32 ancec Rote Dea eee ee 13,571,000 se. 6229 
SEER isd ho eR RE See ees 13,924,000 = 380 
LSS 4 ere heen x as hope eth a eee 14,319,000 ~ | 633 
LOSS eres Lee gk de ae Oth are 14,743,000 ‘= 1,098 
TSG ep eee ak hott Spe Ben ccisre ane 15,127,000 = 1,273 
LSS Vertis Rear Saks ST oat Me Ce 15,532,000 ~~ 1,497 
LSS SIRE eR ope oe a act a 16,037,000 1,913 
TR SOM s M6 age ot ae ene 16,540,000 2,302 
TOAQ PEt ho. cee che tr eee 17,069,453 2,818 
Per. fcent “inereaseitarcie ee ates SEY) 12,108.7 


From such insignificant beginnings the percentage of rail- 
way increase means nothing, but for the two years between 
1838 and 1840 a 47 per cent increase gave promise of the 
transformation in transportation that was impending. How 
the mileage of 1840 was distributed among the states is an 
interesting exhibit: 


Mileage by States in 1840 


Miles of Railway Population 


Ala Daina meet see aths coe tn ieeicl, Metet sees 46 590,756 
COonnecheutir Golf Re lle eee 102 309,978 
elawiare mae ben es cast sis eee 39 78,985 
GEGIP ldgme ce ea sce eee 185 . 691,392 
Kentutisym ees coer cl ete s eles 28 779,828 
TEOtista ts ah ee ore te S'S ae eae 40 352,411 
Mainiesiyetr tee rece te ver eo. 11 501,793 
Marylandgandiia Gaile soe 213 5S fan. 
Massachivsettsmees on ees aire cube 320 737,699 
MAChi¢a mri Nae cao hr. tea os 50 212 207 
New mblampshiromie cess re: 53 284 574 
News] erseyige mie bears aie eck 186 373.306 
Ne Worl ORK sae een ete ieee 374 2,428,921 


NortheCarolins Meeker ea 53 753,419 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 75 











OR Geter We oot e POO ES 30 519 467 
Renna SY A aglia nt ccs. eRe te hs 754 1,724,033 
IRROdewUSia nd rane: a420 coe werk cet 50 108,830 
SOUti eC a rolina tse chee Fes eee wares 137 594,308 
WETAGE bebe Oe peereye ean ota ey tar ee 147 1,239,797 
MOta Let ee, Garters Ol he Oey Tees 2,818 13,795,495 


As the total population in 1840 was 17,069,453, this would 
leave 3,273,958 inhabitants of the balance of the United States 
without any railway connection whatever. They had for 
the most part to get along with such highways and water- 
ways as had served the transportation needs of the preceding 
generations. But, if the completed mileage was woefully 
short of the expanding needs of the republic, there was no 
lack of prospectuses The land from the Atlantic to the Mis- 
Sissippi was alive with projects. Tanner, in his “Description 
of the Canals and Railroads of the United States,” published 
in 1840, enumerates no less than 409 fully chartered railroad 
companies. The spirit was willing and universal, but the 
funds were weak and local to territory that promised some 
return. 


There are no really reliable figures as to the original cost 
of construction of the early railroads. From scattering re- 
ports, it appears that 1,727 miles of the lines in operation in 
1840 cost approximately $57,940,000, or roughly $33,500 per 
-twnile. This would place the cost for the reported mileage in 
the neighborhood of $95,000,000, which may be accepted as 


a conservative estimate. 


These figures are probably far within the actual cost of the 
roads when fully completed and equipped. In many in- 
stances they did not include anything for stations, shops, etc., 
and in some cases neither power nor equipment was included, 
for the idea that a railway was a highway or a toll road died 
slowly. 

Among the roads that cost more than the average may 
be mentioned the Boston & Lowell, $56,600 per mile; the 
Great Western, now part of the Boston & Albany, $36,104 
per mile; the Boston & Providence, $43,460 per mile, and the 
Boston & Worcester, $38,700. 


76 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The eight-mile section of the New York & Harlem, built 
through New York City before 1839, cost what was then con- 
sidered the fabulous sum of $137,500 a mile, but there were 
many roads in England at that time that paid as much for 
the bare right of way. The Mohawk & Hudson cost $38,000 
and the cost of the Erie, as first built, exclusive of engines, 
cars and other equipment, was $43,333 per mile. 


The cost of the Philadelphia & Columbia, the first section 
of what is now the Pennsylvania, was $53,047, exclusive of 
depots, shops, etc., while that of the Allegheny Portage road 
that connected it with Pittsburgh was $1,634,357, or $44,545 
per mile. 


The first section of the Philadelphia & Reading cost $52,630 


per mile. 


In the South the combination of sandy soil, easy grades, 
cheap lumber and cheaper labor resulted in reduced cost of 
construction, and many of the early roads cost less than 
$15,000 a mile. When the roads once got beyond the moun- 
tain barriers, the broad plains of the West offered few ob- 
structions to the laying of rails straight and level in every 
direction then within the vision of railway prospectuses. In 
a single decade railway promotion had outstripped the de- 
mands of traffic. 


The Medley of Gauges 


Between the two-foot tramway and the six-foot broad 
gauge there was scarcely an intermediate width of an inch 
that was not experimented with in the early days of Ameri- 
can railway exploiting. . 

It was different in England. The gauge of the railway 
was fixed by Parliament in 1830 to be not less than four feet 
eight inches between the inside of the rails and between the 
outside edges not more than five feet one inch. There was 
much virtue in the word “more” in this Act, for it left the 
tread of the wheel to the discretion or whim of the car builder. 
It is worth recording that when Thomas Meynell, chair- 
man of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company, offi- 
ciated at the laying of the first rails in Stockton on May 13, 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 7 


1822, he placed them four feet eight inches apart, thus prac- 
tically determining the standard gauge for Great Britain and 
really setting the fashion which ultimately a vast majority 
of the world’s railways were to follow. The rails laid on 
that occasion were malleable iron bars, fifteen feet long and 
twenty-eight pounds in weight, and the first to be used by a 
public railway company. 

In America a number of the earlier roads, including those 
of New England and several in Pennsylvania and New York 
State, adopted the English gauge of four feet eight and one- 





TRACK OF THE ALBANY & SCHENECTADY, ROAD IN 1837 


Note the strip of iron on the edges of the timber rail, cross ties of wood with founda- 
tions of broken stone topped by timbers 


half inches, but thereafter American engineers adopted such 
width of track as seemed best suited to their local conditions. 
The road between Albany and Schenectady had a gauge of 
four feet nine inches; the Camden & Amboy adopted a gauge 
of five feet, and that gauge prevailed throughout the South 
until after the Civil War. The Erie started with a gauge 
of six feet and maintained that broad distinction up to 1878, - 
when after careful planning, but with dramatic alacrity, it 
made this continent practically unanimous for the standard 
gauge. 

The general features of American railway track up to the 
close of the first decade of construction are shown in the fol- 
lowing table: 


78 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Gauge in Wooden 

Length: Feet .Cross\ Ties, Rails; 

in and Size in Size in 

Date Miles Inches Inches Inches 
Matrehs Chink = (as) ia.cn ee 1827 9 3 Ousekloe le 4x6 
Schty kil exes) Sea eee 1829 13 4.8% Oak 12x12 4x7 
Mill .CréekgeePaniiy sco. oc0; 1829 3 Fy Br, eee mob. de 
Schuylkill Valley (Pa.) ...1829 10 G44 pS ige s eeae eee 350 
Mim Carport eas) os. eee 1829 Ti SOU a: ces eee 6x4 
Baltimore & Ohio (Md.)...1828 13 EY * Cedar 6x6 
Oinincy aC lLase nee eae 1826 3 5 Granite ae 
Charleston-Hamburg (S. C.) .1829 6 5 Wood 6x10 
Albany & Hudson (N. Y.)..1830 17 4.9 Wood 7x7 or 
Delaware & Hudson (Pa.)..1829 5 as Hemlock 6x12 
Wistert al Mags. ss ares 1837 54 4.8% Wood 7x12 _ Iron 
DECn ce Sadi eON suey )oueee aes 1835 i 4.8% Cedar 6x6 Iron 
Teri Cme Nowe a) arate be oa aie eee 1836 10 6 Wood Iron 





*Some stone slabs. 


It was in the last year of this decade that a young man 
named Ulysses S. Grant, having been entered at West Point, 
took passage on a steamer at—_ 
Ripley, Ohio, for Pittsburgh. 
“Western boats,” he says in 
his Memoirs, “at that day did 
not) make? -regulari-trips sat 
stated times, but would stop 
EARLY. EIGHT: WHEEL anywhere and for any length 
Pee GER Cre of time, for passengers or 
freight. I have myself been detained two or three days at a 
place after steam was up, the gangplanks, all but one, drawn 
in, and after the time advertised for starting had expired. 
On this occasion we had no vexatious delays and in about 
three days Pittsburgh was reached. From Pittsburgh I 
chose the canal to Harrisburg, rather than the more expe- 
ditious .stage..-*. * *  Hrom, Harrisburg to Philadelphia 
there was a railroad, the first I had ever seen except the one 
on which I had just crossed the summit of the Allegheny 
Mountains and over which canal boats were transported.” 








Miscellaneous Notes 


The first severe railway accident in the United States 
occurred on the Amboy & Bordentown Railroad October 8, 
1833, in which several persons were killed. 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 7S 





The modern American silver dollar of 412.5 grains dates 
back to the Act of Congress of January, -1837. The dollar 
would buy less transportation then than now. 

The average passenger car of that period measured thirty- 
five to forty feet in length, with a width of about eight feet, 
and was six feet six inches high. The aisles were narrow and 





CANAL BOAT BEING HAULED OVER THE PORTAGE ROAD IN 1839 


the seats too short to accommodate two adults comfortably. 
Their ventilation was primitive, and sleeping in a recumbent 
posture only possible in an upright dream. In summer these 
cars were stifling and in winter their temperature ranged from 
red-hot near the iron stove at one end to zero at the other. 
And yet travel by rail was so much more expeditious that it 
was welcomed by all classes as a relief from the tribulations 
of the stage coach and the tortoise pace of the canal boat. 
Arksanas admitted as the twenty-fifth state June 15, 1836. 
Territory of Wisconsin organized July 4, 1836. 


80 HISTORY: OF AMERICAN” RAILWAYS 





Michigan admitted as the twenty-sixth state January 26, 
1837. 

Great commercial panic began in March and reached its 
height in May, 1837, when all the banks in New York sus- 
pended specie payment and embryo railway companies sought 
shelter in the courts. 

Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, publisher of the Alton Observer, 
shot dead by a mob at his office November 7, 1837, one of the 
premonitory signs of the national struggle culminating in 
the Civil War that practically wiped out all the railways then 
built south of Mason & Dixon’s line. 

First regular passage by steamer across the Atlantic. The 
“Great Western” and the “Sirius” both arrived at New York 
April 23, 1838. | 

Iowa received territorial Aerie June 12, 1838, not be- 
coming a state until March, 1845. 

Dangers of river navigation in the West shown by losses 
of fifty-five steamers on the Mississippi, thirteen on the Ohio, 
two on the Missouri, two on the Illinois, one on the Arkansas 
and four others during the year 1838. 

Daguerreotypes first taken in the United States August, 
1839. The illustrations in this book can be traced back to the 
development of this process, the halftone not coming into 
general use until the early eighties, previous sketches being 
from drawings or working models. 

Throughout this decade the idea of the transmission of 
messages by electricity was simmering in the mind of Samuel 
Finley Breese Morse. His first complete instrument was exhi- 
bited in New York in 1835 and he filed his caveat for a patent in 
Washington in 1837. He was refused a patent in England and 
obtained a useless brevet d’invention in France. After four 
years of discouraging importunity he finally got an appropriation 
of $30,000 for an experiment of his invention on line between 
Washington and Baltimore, over which, from the Supreme Court 
room in the capitol to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, was flashed the 
message, “What hath God wrought.” From that day the tele- 
graph became an indispensable adjunct in the operation of 
American railways, and with that epochal step in the march 


FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840 81 





of human progress we take leave of the great railway decade 
of 1830-1840. 

Poverty and prejudice presided at the birth of rail trans- 
portation in America, and panics rendered their early devel- 
opment fitful and precarious. Only the indomitable opti- 
mism of our race pushed the rails westward in advance of 
civilization. 


CHAPTER III 


THE SECOND DECADE, 1840 to 1850 


RAILWAY PROGRESS—DR. LYMAN ABBOTT DESCRIBES 
THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN RAILWAY 


F the reader will draw a straight line on the map of the 
United States from Rochester, N. Y., the western terminal 
of the chain of little railroads 
pushing valiantly from A\l- 
bany to Buffalo, to Pensacola, 
Florida, on the Gulf of Mex- 
ico, the southern terminal of 
the Alabama, Florida & 
Georgia Railroad, in a rough 
way he will locate the divid- 
ing line between railroad ac- 
complishment in 1840 and the 
great beyond. Nowhere had 
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, 1791-1872. construction followed pros- 
Perfector of Electric Telegraph - : 
“What LO EE Fe Wrought !” ea into the vast West 
ae which Washington had _ vis- 
ited and viewed with the vision of prophecy nearly four score 
years and ten earlier. The Portage Railroad over the Alle- 
ghenies had ended at Johnstown, some thirty-eight miles 
short of Pittsburgh, the Fort 
Duquesne of Washington’s 
western wanderings. 

Up to 1840 canals had 
shown the way in the con- 
quest of the West. They had 
the inside track with the Fed- 
eral and State legislators of that day, and the financiers of 
New York and Philadelphia lent a receptive ear to yundertak- 
ings that promised and actually paid 8 per cent on invest- 
ments, where the railway averaged less than 514 per cent. 








TIOGA RAILROAD CAR OF 1840 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 83 








Besides tales were floated around that a particularly favored 
canal in England averaged 112 per cent on its cost. 

Under such favoring influences the Erie canal had been 
pushed through to Buffalo and was paying handsomely, and 
the State of Ohio was traversed:by 1,000 miles of canals con- 
necting the great lakes with the Ohio river. It has been esti- 
mated that $250,000,000, or about $30,000 a mile, was invested 
in American canals before investors saw the rail writing on 
the map and began to put their money cautiously and grudg- 
ingly into the more flexible and speedy means of modern 






















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































CHICAGO IN 1842 


internal communication. Waterways could not be made to 
run up hill and railways could, and in that single phase of the 
law of gravitation was written the doom of canals on this 
continent of alternating plains and mountains. The normal 
current of the Mississippi rendered it impotent to compete 
with the light but high speed locomotives of the forties. 
Today the chief objective of its improvement is an appro- 
priation. 

By 1842 it was estimated that all the states had appro- 
priated or invested $60,000,000 for canals to $43,000,000 for 
railways, and it was said that the few were prosperous and 
the majority were insolvent. But the needs of the country 
were such that they continued to raise, beg and borrow— 
principally borrow—money for both. 


The First Wave of Immigration 


Prior to 1840 the United States was divided into two main 
sections, Eastern and Western, separated by the Allegheny 


_— 
. 


nPwh 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








CHICAGO IN 1924—LOOKING TOWARD THE LAKE 
—From the air by Chicago Aerial Survey Co. 
Chicago & Northwestern Station. Illinois Central Station. 
Chicago Union Station. . Municipal ‘Stadium. 


Grand Central Station. Field Museum. 
La Salle Station. . City Hall and County Building. 


Dearborn Station. 


© CONTOD 


—~ 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 85 





mountains and their extensions. The winning of the West 


by wagon road, pack horse, waterway and railway was the 


impulse that stirred the migratory spirit of: American youth 
from Maine to Florida. Horace Greeley’s “Go West, young 
man,’ was the word passed along from town to hamlet, and 
it fell on willing ears already ringing with tales of stirring 
adventure and certain fortune where land was cheap and 
elbow-room free. Even in the writer’s early youth, Daniel 
Boone’s name overshadowed the fame of Washington as a 


pioneer of the West. 


Across the Atlantic, which steam had come to make the 
great ocean highway, conditions were such that millions 
needed little urging to take up their belongings and trek to 





THE FIRST CUNARDER—“BRITANNIA” 
‘First trip, Liverpool to Boston in 1840 


the land of liberty and opportunity. The census of 1841 
showed Ireland to have a population of 8,196,597. The potato 
crop failed and by 1851 famine and emigration had reduced 


the population to 6,574,278. Of the difference, no less than 


780,719 are shown by our immigration returns to have migrat- 
ed to the United States in the ten years 1841-50. This was 
followed by 914,119 from the Green Isle in the next decade. 

Political unrest, ending in revolution in 1849, headed em- 


igration from Germany to the same bourne of free speech 


and free land, so that before the end of the decade 434,626 


86 BHISLORY. OF AMS RICAN ya Ears. 


German immigrants had sought these shores; only to be fol- 
lowed during the next decade by nearly a million more Teu- 
tons, of whom Carl Schurz was the most important acquisi- 
tion to our public life. 

During these two decades. immigration added more to 
our population (4,311,000) than there were inhabitants in the 
United States at the time of 
the’ first census an ~ 1790 
(3,929,214) and it was a most 
fortunate circumstance that 
canal and railway construc- 
tion had advanced far enough 





PASSENGER CAR—MICHIGAN ; Sane 
ENTRAL, 1844 to -assist. in their’ distrib 


tion to the broad and fertile plains beyond the Alleghenies. 


The Building of American Railways 


Instead of following the fortunes of the many railway 
projects for opening the various gateways to the West, the 
reader. will be more interested in seeing its development 
through the eyes of the late 
Lyman Abbott, who in 1874 
contributed a most enlighten- 
ing description of the making 
of an American railway to 
Harper's New Monthly Maga- 
zine. For the second number 
of the same magazine, Wil- 
liam McLeod had written a 
lively account of the scenery 
on the Erie Railroad, some 
sentences from which may 
serve as a prelude to Dr. Ab- 
bott’s more detailed story. 





“The construction of the 
Erie Railroad through the 
hitherto secluded valleys of 
the Delaware and Susque- 





LYMAN ABBOTT—1835-1922. 
Latest photograph 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 87 





hanna rivers, and reaching now almost to the Allegheny,” 
says Mr. McLeod, “has opened to access new fields for the 
tourist, abounding with the loveliest and grandest works of 
Petit ere as tere 

“The reader is familiar with the geography of the road: 
Commencing at Piermont on the Hudson, twenty-four miles 
from New. York, on the long pier that projects a mile 










































































































































































































































































































































































> 


VIEW FROM PIERMONT, LOOKING NORTH 
First terminal of the Erie on the Hudson, 25 miles from New York 


into the river, it winds its way westward among the hills 
along the course of the Sparkill. Just before leaving the pier, 
looking north, the view on the preceding page is presented. 
1 es 

“We will present only one other view, which represents 
one of the imposing structures which characterize the Erie 
road. This is the viaduct over the valley of the Starrucca, 
built of stone. It is elevated one hundred feet above the 
valley, is over twelve hundred feet long and twenty-five feet 
wide and is composed of eighteen heavy piers, with arches 


88 HISTORY OF AMERICAN, KAILW AY S 


of fifty feet span. It is simple in its design, but symmetrical 
and beautiful, and is altogether the noblest piece of work 
upon the whole line of the road.” 

Now let Dr. Abbott take up the story twenty-four years 
later: “I propose,’ says he in opening his article on ‘The 
American Railroad,” ‘“‘to give as far as it can be given within 
the limits of a single magazine article some account of the 
origin, history and internal management of the American 


rairogd eat 










































































SS 1B ty; SONTIE Soha 


STARRUCCA VALLEY VIADUCT 





“Tt will render our task of tracing the history and describ- 
ing the organization of the American railroad simpler if we 
take one as illustrative of the entire system. For that pur- 
pose I have chosen the Erie Railway. It is one of the long- 
est, as it is one of the oldest, on the continent. In its early 
history it met and conquered obstacles which might well have 
sufficed to crush an enterprise financially much stronger. A 
large part of its course lay through an absolutely trackless 
wilderness. To reach its destination it was necessary to climb 
a mountain range over 1700 feet above the level of the sea, 
and make its way along the course of a stream which flows 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 89 


between almost precipitous walls of rock. As a monument 
of engineering skill it is without a superior today in America— 
certainly if the times and circumstances in which it was con- 
structed be taken into account. * * * 

“The conception of a railroad is often a flash of genius 
in the individual mind. But before the originator can realize 
his vision he must succeed in inspiring other minds with his 
own conception and enthusiasm, and this is always a work of 
time. Of the prenatal history of the railroad the Erie is an 
illustrious example. 

“In 1779 General James Clinton and General Sullivan, at 
the close of an expedition against the Iroquois Indians in the 
southern counties of New York State, proposed to Congress 
the construction of what they termed an Appian Way from 
theacity,o! New York to Lake ‘Erie. [he great inland? seas 
which we call lakes, and which have done so much to develop 
the rich but formerly inaccessible West, were at that time 
separated from the sea coast by the mountain ranges which 
stretched, with here and there a break, from the Gulf States 
to the river St. Lawrence. The Great West, the future but 
then tnrecognized granary of the nation, was more remote 
from the Atlantic than is today the empire of Japan. To 
the Clintons, New York owes the two great highways which 
have rendered her chief city the metropolis of the nation— 
the Erie canal and the Erie Railway. The Appian Way never 
got further in construction than an ineffectual application to 
Goneress 10r an appropiintion. «tv. " = 

“Fifty years passed before the first step was taken toward 
the realization of this Appian Way. Meanwhile the methods 
of intercommunication had changed. ‘The canal had sup- 
planted the public road and the railroad was beginning to 
supplant the canal. At last, in April, 1832, three years after 
George Stephenson ran his first passenger locomotive over 
the Liverpool & Manchester railway, the Legislature of New 
York granted a charter for the construction of a road of iron 
where General James Clinton had dreamed only of one mod- 
eled as well as named after the famous highway of ancient 
Rome. This charter affords a curious illustration of the short- 


90 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





sightedness that is characteristic of the cunning of politicians. 
It forbade all connections with Pennsylvania and New Jersey 
railroads. * * * So the one terminus was made at Pier- 
mont, the nearest accessible point in the state on the Hudson 
river to the city of New York; the other was made at Dun- 


¢ 



























































(This cut from Lyman 
Abbott’s article in Harp- 
er’s Monthly Magazine 
of 1874 illustrates some 
of the perils attending 
the location of railways.) 


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































TAKING A LEVEL 








N THE 740s 











ON THE ERIE I 
kirk, the most remote western harbor. But through cars 
have long since been run direct both to Cincinnati and Chi- 
cago; and the long pier that was built over the flats of the 
Tappan Zee at Piermont to make the steamboat connections 
with the city is only useful as a permanent warning to legisla- 
tors that it is their business to facilitate the natural course of 
trade, not to obstruct, to divert or to control it.” 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 91 


The next step was a survey: 

“If the reader will turn to any map of New York state,” 
continues Dr. Abbott, “he will find that the southern tier of 
counties from the Hudson river as far west as Bingham- 
ton, are intersected by mountain ranges, whose abrupt and 
rugged character and wild and desolate features can be but 
inadequately indicated. He will see also traced upon the map 
by insignificant-looking serpentine lines the course of two’ 
great rivers, the Delaware and the Susequehanna, whose 





TRAINS PASSING THROUGH LANCASTER, PA., ABOUT 1842 
Note absence of track elevation or gates for streets in those days 


branches are but sixteen miles apart at Deposit, while the 
waters of the one empty into Delaware Bay and of the other 
into Chesapeake Bay. These mountain lines indicate the 
difficulties to be overcome; these river lines indicate the meth- 
ods by which the railroad engineer overcomes them.” 

Here follows a detailed description of the route to be 
taken by the Erie in its journey of 459 miles to its western 
terminus, to which the writer adds: 

“In a somewhat similar way the Pennsylvania Central 
(Note the Central.) Railroad crosses the same great moun- 
tain range by the aid of the Susquehanna, the Juniata and 
the Conemaugh rivers; and the Pacific Railroad follows the 
Platte river almost to its source in the Rocky Mountains on 
the e#stern side and descends upon the western slope by the 


92 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


valleys of a succession of less important but equally useful 
mountain streams.” 

Then the article takes up the duties of the railroad sur- 
veyor, which are common to all railway construction: 

“Having made his preliminary and office survey, the real 
work of the surveyor begins. For this purpose the chief 
engineer makes a general reconnoissance of the whole ground, 
generally on horseback. He provides himself with the best 
map or maps he can obtain. He picks up as best he can more 
definite and precise local information. To succeed in his 
work he must have qualities’ which are rare, qualities which 
no mere school of engineering can impart. In his profession, 
as in every other, there is a certain something indefinable in 
native genius, something which may perish unused for want 
of development and training but which no mere development 
and training can supply. The engineer must be a man of 
ready parts. He must have himself always well in hand. 
He must know human nature and how to deal with it. He 
must be equally at home in the log hut among the mountains 
and in the velvet-carpeted and mahogany-furnished office 
in the great city. He must be a man of quick eye and abun- 
dant resources, able to meet an exigency, or to vary in detail 
and on the moment a carefully matured plan for the purpose 
of avoiding an unexpected obstacle or reaching the general 
result with the least expenditure of time and money. * * * 

“The more accurate survey now follows: This is always 
effected in sections. It is performed by an engineer corps, 
which consists of an assistant engineer, a transit man, a 
leveler, a rod-man, two chain-men, one or two flagmen and 
a gang of axe-men. When the company are obliged to camp 
out, the necessary accessories of a camp are. added: The 
work of such a surveying party is always, under the best 
circumstances, one of hardship and adventure. They must 
stop at no obstacle; and the country presents innumerable 
difficulties which the map had not reported and even the 
reconnoissance had not discovered. Morasses are to be 
traversed, streams are to be crossed, precipitous hills to be 
climbed, impenetrable thickets to be penetrated. The Erie 


SECOND DECADE, i840-1850 — 93 


Railway runs for miles along the banks of the Delaware river, 
in many places upon a shelf cut in the solid rock fifty feet 
or more above the torrent. Yet somehow along this seem- 
ingly inaccessible gorge the surveying party had to make 
their way before the first blast could be fired to prepare the 
present rocky road-bed. It is said that at some points they 
were lowered by ropes from the top of the cliff and so, hanging 
between heaven and earth, took their levels. The earliest 
surveys of such work as the Pacific Railroad through a coun- 














TRANSPORTING A LOCOMOTIVE BY HORSES IN 1842 


When the “Florida” arrived in Atlanta it had been hauled from Madiscn, 60 miles 
away 


—Courtesy of The Right of Way Magazine 


try absolutely a wilderness, and almost absolutely an untrod- 
den wilderness, are marvels of human capacity. * * * 
“In the railroad survey the exact difference in level must 
be preserved and respected. Every inequality must be noted. 
This is done by the leveler and is preserved by the profile 
map. Of these profile maps there are two—one, the larger 
map, indicates the general features of the route; the second 
and more detailed profile preserves to the foot a careful record 
of every inequality of ground over which the projected route 
is to pass. These reports indicate exactly the obstacles which 
the engineer has to encounter. They inevitably lead to new 
reconnoissances and new surveys. Deviations here and there 


94 HISTORY OF -AMERICAN KAILWAYS. 





are found to be expedient, to save expense, now in first cost 
of construction, now in subsequent cost of operating. 

“At length the facts are all before the engineer-in-chief, 
and he is prepared to make his report. It goes before the 
board of directors. Its conclusions are scanned, its methods 
cross-examined, its results subjected to the severest scrutiny. 
A thousand questions must be raised, debated, determined, 
before anything can be considered settled. The road must 
deviate here to get the custom of a large town or city, there 
to avoid grounds through which the right of way would be 
more costly than a tunnel or filling; now to tap a rival or a 
cross railroad at the right spot, now to accommodate some 
wealthy and influential patron, whose interest in the road 
depends on making it at some point subservient to his own 
business. If thé engineer could only be permitted to run his 
projected road where it would be easiest built, his problem 
would be a simple one; but he must also consider what will 
be the cost of carriage, what will be expensive to maintain 
as well as to construct, where he will get custom, and how 
he may avoid local oppositions * * * 

“The road is projected; the projector has secured the co- 
operation of sufficient capital to enable a beginning to be 
made; it has been surveyed; the right of way has been ob- 
tained; a charter has been secured; it now remains to con- 
struct the road. In the inception of railroad life this was done 
by the:company. .*~ *)~* © But the srowth -oferamroadesnas 
brought with it a division of labor, and now the railroad 
company rarely or never constructs its own line. This is 
done for the company by a railroad contractor. * * * 

“The railroad contractor is eminently a practical man. He 
is apt to be a self-made man. He is not infrequently one who 
commenced life with the spade, the pick-axe and the wheel- 
barrow. He had greater industry or greater shrewdness than 
his fellows and became the head of a gang of men. Then he 
took a small contract on his own account, invested luckily in 
real estate along the line of a projected railway, amassed a 
little capital, employed both capital and experience to good 
advantage, and so gradually got on in the world, till now, 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 95 





what with capital and credit, he stands ready to undertake 
any work which the railroad capitalist desires undertaken. 
He knows how many cubic feet of earth there are in a hill 
and how many it will take to fill up a valley. He has a prac- 
ticed eye for soils and detects by a sort of intuition where the 
hard rock will be, and where the cutting will be an easy one. 
Earth digging, blasting rocks, pumping, embanking, boring 
and building tunnels, erecting bridges and culverts, are all fa- 
miliar operations with him. He possesses a larger or smaller 
stock of wheelbarrows, picks, shovels, carts, earth wagons, 
and horses. He lays tempo- 
rary sleepers and light rails 
as the work progresses and 
generally owns at least one 













, TAS 
or two locomotives and the Bern see fais 
cot ae Se Sil S 
necessary dirt cars for drag- AEX) TS. : 
ging materials. He usually © ga_pwrn’s FAST PASSENGER 


contracts for a section of the ENGINE OF 1848 


road to be built at a fixed price, or at one that varies within 
certain limits, according to the development of difficulties as 
the work progresses. He often sublets to other contractors 
his work in its details. He sometimes makes a miscalcula- 
tion and loses a fortune, but his miscalculations are oftener 
on the credit side of his ledger and the result a fortune made. 
He has abundant opportunities to make incidental profits, and 
he is not slow to avail himself of them. 

“But he must not only have a practical knowledge of rail- 
road works, he must have a practical skill in managing 
pailread’ workers, °F | +  * 

- “In this country the work of the pick and the barrow is 
largely performed by Irish laborers. Their temporary vil- 
lages are familiar to every traveler on our railroads. Their 
management requires on the part of the contractor peculiar 
dexterity to avoid the loss inevitable from wasted hours or 
misapplied energy. In brief, the railroad contractor has under 
him an army of men without the discipline of an army; he 
must exercise over them the control of a general without 
being invested with a general’s authority. * * * 


96 HISTORY” OF sAMERICAND RAIEWAYS 





THE ENGINE HACKENSACK 
Built by Rogers about 1846 


“In brief, then, it is the office of the railroad contractor 
not only to pierce the hills, bridge the streams, cross the val- 
leys, construct the stations; not only must he be a bridge- 
builder, a road-maker and a practical mechanic; not only must 
he do his work with ignorant and unskilled workmen * * * 
but he must do it frequently in the heart of a wild waste 
wilderness; must transport his men, his tools, his provisions; 
must erect the shelter and provide the necessaries of life for 





THE RECONSTRUCTED “PIONEER? 
OF STH CHILCAGONe “NOR TH 
WESTERN 


lccomotive was landed in 


This 10-ton 
Chicago from a Schooner, October 
10, 1848 


his workmen; must keep up 
their failing courage with his 
own and must do all at the 
hazard of his purse, if his es- 
timates have deceived him, 
but at the hazard of his health 
and even of his life.” 

S00 Dr. Lyne coer 
nearly half a century ago, 
brought his typical American 
railroad up to the point of 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1830 oF 








physical construction, ready to be equipped and put in opera- 
tion. With variations to meet the physical conditions of a 
continent, the same process of building railroads into the 
wilderness was proceeding on both sides of the Erie. 

At this stage, five great routes to the West were under 
construction: the New York-Boston-Albany to Buffalo; the 
Erie to Dunkirk ; the Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Pitts- 
burgh; the Baltimore & Ohio from Baltimore to Wheeling, 
and the Southern, Western & Atlantic from Charleston to 
Chattanooga. 

At the end of the decade 1840-1850 we find that the railway 
mileage of the United States has more than trebled in ten 
years and is distributed among twenty-five states instead of 
the nineteen listed in 1840. These twenty-five states, with 
their mileage and population, were as follows 





Miles Miles Population 

in 1840 in 1850 in 1850 

les Dau tYicie ate au ie tara Spee. $ 46 75 771,623 
COMIECTICUE >. Rew a 102 402 370,792 
Blelaware Na ceils. cna k 39 39 91,532 
Hira Wace cae aha mh Zi 87,445 
Geared aero we ee 185 643 906,185 
Eilvine rs eres meets ae 18 3 111 851,470 
leveitinael rte era ke 5 at 228 988,416 
ITI EM Cle vr. ete ras as 28 78 982,405 
Wouisiatio en Ge dee ohoak 40 80 517,762 
NT treet ciated tee 161 245 583,169 
iar yiatid atid L). oo. 9 213 259 583,034 
Niasca cliitserts athe... OUL HOS5 994,514 
Wisc arrestee sie, hat ee 50 342 397,654 
WEI SSIC SO Dial at ie ae oh ts an 682,054 
New tlampsiire +7... 93 467 317;976 
Never thersty ny iil oa a) Mon 186 206 489,555 
VEN e AOR ate, ge een ofa os 1361 3,097,394 
North, Carolia 40... 53 154 869,039 
COTATOM Reoe Riark gee eRe ek 30 S75 1,980,329 
Peansvivania, ye... sss 754 1,240 2,311,786 
ikhode. teland =... a. 33 EQ 68 147,545 
SOUL BO avolina t:. (pte ee 289 668,507 
eLIIT Olver ee Trea. elie bas he 290 314,120 
PANG CF Idd ao te Sopiowel ci, 384 1,421,661 
MWrasrunsineeh sn. sews: ot se 20 305,391 
Pell reenter e iets 2,818 9,021 20,721,358 


It will be perceived that the original thirteen states, Maine 
being included in Massachusetts, contained an overwhelming 


98 HISTORY” OF AMEKICAN KAILWAYS 





majority of railroads—no less than 7,118 miles of the 9,021 
miles of completed line being in the section settled before 
the Revolution. In ten years the population of the United 
States had increased to 23,191,876, but nearly two and a half 
million (2,470,518) were living in states or territories without 
any railway connection with the rest of the Union. But it 
was coming as swiftly as financial and physical conditions 
would permit. The coffers of the world were not yet opened 








THE “PIONEER”—ANOTHER VIEW 


freely to enterprises where the risks were more promising of 
adventures than of pecuniary returns. 

As a glance at the mileage by states indicates, penetration 
by rail had not penetrated the United States in 1850 anywhere 
beyond the Mississippi. Even in Illinois, which presented 
the most inviting topography the eye of a railroad prospector 
ever rested upon, only 111 miles of line had been constructed 
of the veritable network then proposed that in a few years 
was to put it in the van of the railroad procession. In Texas, 
which has now taken the lead, then freshly admitted to the 
Union (1845), there was not a single mile of track, and the 
war with Mexico (1846-48) was prosecuted on land with trans- 
portation facilities little in advance of those employed in the 
earliest campaigns of the Republic. 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 8) 





During this decade the states of Florida, Texas, Iowa and 
Wisconsin were admitted to the Union; the war with Mexico 
had resulted in a treaty by which we acquired California and 
New Mexico by the payment of $15,000,000 to Mexico and 
$3,500,000 to Americans for damages due to the war. Hardly 
was the ink dry on this treaty before gold, in quantities that 
fired the imagination of mankind throughout the world, was 
discovered in California and the greatest rush of goldseekers 





SAN FRANCISCO IN 1848 
From a sketch by J. C. Ward 


in history taxed to its utmost every known means of trans- 
portation across the continent. Immigrants and settlers who 
had poured into the West from the East and Europe pulled 
up their stakes and treked across the plains and mountains 
in caravans by the hundreds. Others went by boat to Aspin- 
wall, made the toilsome portage to Panama, and thence by 
slow steamer to San Francisco. It would have congested the 
continental railways and the Panama Canal of 1923 to handle 
the rush of 1849, but neither was available. In 1848, the 
same year that gold was discovered in California, the first 
locomotive was landed from a schooner in Chicago and the 
latter was the bigger event of the two in its vast potentiali- 
ties for the human race. 


100 HISTORY OF “AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Perhaps the best idea of the lack of transcontinental trans- 
portation in those days is given by the fact that the postage 
on a half ounce letter from San Francisco to the Atlantic 
coast was 40 cents. 

Although mails were first carried by railroads in 1834, and 
all railroads had been declared post routes in 1839, it was not 
until March 3, 1845, that postage on letters was reduced to 
5 cents within 300 miles and 10 cents for greater distances; 





TY PH.OF ENGINE. BUILT BY ROGERS IN 4848. 


and not until 1851 was 3 cents made the rate for carrying a 
half-ounce letter by mail for any distance under 3,000 miles. 
Only the railways as developed in the United States and 
Canada have made the carriage of one-ounce letters all dis- 
tances on this continent for 2 cents postage possible. 

The cost of all railways in the United States up to 1850 
was estimated to be $372,770,000, or $34,307 per mile. 

Erie 7 per cent bonds sold at $90 cost the company 7.77 
perscent interest. 5 

Seven states undertook to build railroads—namely, Penn- 
sylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, 
Michigan and Illinois. All sold out at a loss. The State of 


SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850 101 


eo 


Pennsylvania built the Allegheny Portage road. ata cost of 
$1,860,750. 

The first iron rails imported from England were as durable 
as modern steel rails, but cost $80 a‘ton. 

WKhe first [-railss werevrolledvmi the- United States; at the 
Montour Rolling Mills, Danville, Pa., in October, 1845. 

By 1850 there were sixteen steamers plying on the Sacra- 
mento, but the Golden Gate had not yet heard the first whistle | 


of a. locomotive. 


“It was during this decade that aerk John C. Fremont, the 
Pathfinder, made his famous explorations across the conti- 
nent that finally landed him at the mouth of the Columbia 
river and earned for him the Republican party nomination 
for President in 1856, in the initial campaign that four years 
later was to culminate in the election of Abraham Lincoln 
and the great war that followed. 

While railway promotion and construction were the great 
physical concern of this period, over the whole United States 
the shadow of that great struggle was impending. It had 
flared up in 1837, when the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot 
while defending his printing press and paper at Alton, Illi- 
nois, from an attack of a pro-slavery mob. And from that 
point on all attempts to avoid, evade.or compromise the issue 
in Congress or throughout the Nation were futile. Only the 
lack of rapid transportation prevented the extremists of the 
North and South coming to grips over the slavery question 
earlier than they did. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE THIRD DECADE, 1850 to 1860 


We hear the tread of pioneers 
Of nations yet to be, s 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 
Shali roll a human sea. 
—Whittier 
Y the opening of the next decade, the railways of America 
may be said to have passed the experimental stage. Their 
gauge had been fixed by almost 
universal adoption at 4 feet 8% 
inches. The ‘T-rail, . which 
found its prototype in the 550 
bars, 15 feet iong and weighing 
36 lbs. to the yard, imported 
from England in 1831 for the 
Camden & Amboy Railroad, 
had supplanted by practically 
common consent all other 
forms of rails. It was laid on 
wooden cross ties instead of 
longitudinal sleepers or blocks 
of stone. With the stone block, 
its attendant iron chair to hold 
the rail gave place to the fish- 
joint held together between 
fishplates with bolts running 
through the ends of the rails. The rails themselves had in- 
creased in weight to 56 and 60 pounds to the yard— these 
weights themselves seemingly fixed, the one by halving the 
British 112-pound hundredweight and the other by arith- 
metical progression with 10 as the factor. At this stage Bri- 
tish nomenclature parted company with the progress of Amer- 
ican rail weights which went forward at the rate of 10 lbs. 
a leap to each yard to reach and pass the 100-pound mark. 
The length of the rail had also increased from 18 to 30 feet. 





SIR HENRY BESSEMER 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 


103 





It was during this decade 
that the first steel rails were 
imported from England and 
placed in the line of the Penn- 
sylvania Company. They 
cost $218 per ton, which may 
be compared with the pre-war 
(1914) price of $28 per ton. 
But the discovery of the 
Bessemer process, by which 
steel ingots were manufac- 
tured that could be rolled into 





“PRAIRIE SCHOONER” OF THE 
EARLY ’50s 


No advance on the Conestoga wagon of 
the 730s 


rails without hammering, in 1855, put an end to such a prohib- 


itive price on steel rails. 


sir Henry Bessemer reaped an 


ample pecuniary reward for his great contribution to the in- 
dustrial world, but his knighthood was conferred in tardy 


recognition for an earlier minor invention which the govern- 


ment promptly appropriated without compensation. 
In the evolution of the railway the constituent parts of the 
American train had by this decade reached, in miniature at 





“GOVERNOR MARCY,” BUILT FOR MICHIGAN SOUTHERN R. R. IN 1851 
—Courtesy of American Locomotive Co. 


104 HISTORY “OF AMERICAN? KRAILEWVAYS 


least, the stage familiar to every school child. The locomo- 
tive had developed from the nondescript experiments of the 
earlier days, as illustrated in preceding pages, into what be- 
came the peculiarly American type, with its four coupled 
driving wheels and its four-wheeled truck or bogie, with the 
pilot or cowcatcher; the large headlight and the wooden cabs 
with glass windows. The last had been adopted first in New 
England to protect the engineers from freezing to death at 








CROSSING THE PLAINS.IN THE LATER 750s 


their throttles in the frigid winters north of the Connecticut 
river. The smokestack had reached the transition stage be- 
tween the funnel-shaped device with the sparkcatcher, typical 
of the early wood burners, and the upright stovepipe effect 
which was to approach the vanishing point, drawn in like a 
turtle’s head, as the boilers assumed greater proportions. At 
this stage the American locomotive was a gaudy affair capa- 
risoned, so to speak, with shining brass rods which it was the 
duty if not the pride of the crew to polish up so carefully that 
thousands of pounds of cotton waste and hundreds of “man- 
hours” were annually wasted in the useless process. One of 
the great economic reforms credited to Commodore Vander- 
bilt was the ordering that all these rods should be painted 
black, as they are to this day. 

The American passenger car of 1850 had assumed the form 


PHIRD DECADE, 4850-1860 105 





and proportion it bears today—a long body mounted on two 
four-wheeled bogies, first adopted in the United States to 
permit lengthy engines and cars to round the sharp curves 
with which our early lines abounded. The side entrance 
which persists in England and Europe today had been aban- 
doned for the end entrance and the center corridor. 

But there is one feature of the modern American through 
train that was generally missing in the make-up of the trains 














Lt 


anu HALA te 
ad \ cee 
: ig oe 

a wil 
























































































































ae sal 
~— awa | Eun 
IN Mia 


“TICKETS PLEASE’”’—1850 


Worse than the owl’s midnight hoot to the sleeping passenger. 
Note the lantern’s sickly illumination. 


of the ‘50s—the sleepers. Not until the average rail journey 
extended beyond what could be compassed between sun-up 
and sun-down was there a pressing demand for relief from 
having to curl up on the length of a single seat. The sketch 
of “A general view of a night car on the Central” in 1858, 
from Harper's Weekly, represents the ills the traveler of that 
period had to endure when he undertook to get anywhere 
beyond Albany after dark and before George M. Pullman drew 
a curtain over the fantastic scene. 

Once more the writer avails himself of the clear view ob- 
tained of railway conditions in the United States during the 
period under review by condensing from a contemporaneous 
account of a journey over the newly completed Baltimore & 
Ohio from Baltimore to Wheeling, and thence by boat to Pitts- 
burgh, contributed to Harper’s Monthly in the spring of 1857, 
by Brantz Mayer, an American writer of note in those days. 
The author was fortunate in finding himself a guest on a spe- 


EGA 





106 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








cial train made up at Baltimore to carry the officials on a 
reconnoissance of the road. It was composed of a fine engine, 
followed by a car fitted up as a kitchen and dining room, 








WHERE GEORGE M. PULLMAN GOT HIS INSPIRATION 
Discomfort of Night Travel in a day car in the °50s 
—From sketch in Harper’s Weekly in 1859 


where fifteen or twenty could take their meals as comfortably 
as in the cabin of a packet. Next came two cars with read- 
ing rooms, writing tables, books, instruments and everything 
requisite for the reconnoitering party, while portions were 
fitted with staterooms for accommodations at night. A car 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 107 





conveniently fitted up for observation brought up the rear. 
Being a native of Baltimore of extensive travels, Captain 
Mayer did not fail to note his appreciation of the admirable 
“Commissary Department,’ which had already come to be 
associated with such inspection tours. The train was scarcely 
beyond the outskirts of Baltimore before it stopped for break- 
fast at the Relay House. The fare consisted of Maryland’s 




















































































































































































































































































































ELLICOTT’S MILL—FIFTEEN MILES FROM BALTIMORE 


luxuries, “soft shell crabs” and “spring chicken.” Skirting 
the brawling Patapsco, the train quickly passed Ellicott’s 
Mills, famed as the first stop of the initial Baltimore & Ohio 
train, and soon reached Elysville, where it lingered long 
enough to permit the artist to make a sketch of the double 
track iron bridge which spanned the river at that point. Re- 
suming, it was not long before our observer emerged on the 
Potomac not far from the Point of Rocks. Here the roadway 
ran along a “ledge cut from the precipice of the Catochin 


108 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Mountain, towering up on the right, and supported by broad 
embanking walls that separate it from the canal and river on 
the-lett.e 

“At this point,’ says Captain Mayer, “the Potomac is a 
third of a mile wide, and foams over a bed of ledges like so 
many fractured barriers, denoting the conflict between the 
ridge and the river when it burst through the hills. Such, 
with few intermissions, is the character of scenery from the 
Point of Rocks to Harper’s Ferry, which is built on a narrow 
declivitous tongue lying directly in the confluence of the 
Shenandoah and Potomac and was fed on either side by those 
noble streams.” 

By the aid of Captain Mayer’s lively description and the 
quaint little woodcuts accompanying the letterpress, the 
reader gains an impression of the natural obstacles confronted 
and overcome by the distinguished engineer Benjamin H. 
Latrobe, under whose inspir- 
ing direction the road was 
completed across the Alle- 
ghenies to the Ohio. For a 
description of the meeting of 
the riyers -at, Harper's. Ferry, 
the author has recourse to 
the well-known passage from 
Thomas Jefferson, supposed 
to have been written in the 
Shadow of the giant rock 
overlooking the scene depict- 
ed in the éengraving.. ~ You 
stand; vsays he! Gia Cc uy 
high point of land; on your 
right comes up the Shenan- 
doah, having ranged the foot 
of the mountain a hundred 
miles to seek a vent; on your 
POINT OF ROCKS left approaches the Potomac 


Seventy miles from Baltimore along the : 
Chesapeake & Ohio canal in quest Osa portage aiso. 2in 
















































































































































































































































































































































































THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 — 109 








the moment of their junction they rush together against the 
mountain, rend it asunder and pass off to the sea.” 
As the captain’s companions wandered through the Na- 
























































































































































EARLY TRON BRIDGE ON THE B..& O., NEAR ELYSVILLE, 21 MILES 
FROM BALTIMORE 


tional Armory at Harper’s Ferry, inspecting the preparations 
made “to construct weapons for human slaughter,’ he in- 
dulged in sentimental reflections regarding the belligerent 
state of mankind. He had no gift of prescience or prophecy, 
or he might have recorded some premonitory thoughts of 


Pottawattamie Brown and 
the tragic episodes to be en- 
acted only two years later 
within the shadows of those 
sentinel mountains. Not a 
few Americans think that 
secession was hastened by the 
Harper’s Ferry raid and that 
the soul of American free- 
dém went marching on to vic- 
tory from the body of John 
Brown the fanatical aboli- 
tionist. 

No such thoughts disturbed 
the spirits of Captain Mayer 





THE POTOMAC FROM “JEFFER- 
ON’S ROCK” ; 

Harper’s Ferry on the B. & O., 81 miles 
from Baltimore 


110 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





and his companions as their train rolled on into the rugged 
mountain fastnesses beyond Harper’s Ferry. Quickly it 
panted up the valley of the Potomac, with brief stops at 
Martinsburg and St. John’s Run, to Cumberland. The better 
part of thirty-six hours had been consumed in making the one 
hundred and ninety miles now easily run inside of five hours. 

Cumberland naturally awakened memories of old Fort 
Cumberland, famous as a frontier outpost on the Indian trail 
down the Potomac. It had been the rendezvous for Brad- 
dock’s ill-fated enterprise and through it passed the National 
Road. Washington had visit- 
ed it almost a century before, 
in 1753-54 and ’56, and Cap- 
tain Mayer has embalmed the 
general’s headquarters in a 
charming little wood cut giv- 
en herewith. 

Leaving Cumberland, the 
a fp party continued to ascend the 
_ HARPER’S FERRY IN 1857. *' chasm and defiles cut by the 
With covered bridge across the Potomac : : 

Potomac in the steep ledges 
of the mountains towering high above. “No one,” says our 
author, “has ever looked westward from the spot (Piermont) 
without wondering how the passage is to be effected; yet no 
one has made the journey without equal surprise at the seem- 
ing ease by which science and energy have overcome every 
impediment. As you pass forward from Piedmont the im- 
pression is that you are about to run a tilt against the moun- 
tain flank, with blind and aimless impulse; but a graceful 
curve winds the train out of harm and you move securely 
into the primeval forest, feeling the engine begin to tug up 
the steep as it strikes the edge of Savage River, which boils 
down the western shoulder of Savage Mountain. The transit » 
from the world to the wilderness is instantaneous.” 

Then the train passes on and up to Altamont, 2,620 feet 
above tidewater and the greatest elevation along the route. 
At Cranberry. Summit the travelers get the “first grand 
glimpse of the ‘Western World’.” And it may be remarked 





fy Sy, 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 Lil 








that Balboa, when he first looked upon the placid horizon of 
the Pacific, saw nothing grander or more impressive than the 
scene that unfolds before American travelers as they emerge 
on the western slope of the Alleghenies. 

The journey down to Wheeling and by boat to Pittsburgh 
need not be told in detail. As he passed through the territory 
then first reclaimed from Nature, Captain Mayer soliloquized: 
“In these central solitudes everything seems to be the prop- 
erty of the wilderness—wilderness incapable of yielding to 






















































































































































































































































































































































































iQ yt 


Ta 


Lf OG 
Ye 


f) 
GT a 





WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT FORT CUMBERLAND 


any mastery but that of an engineer; and it may fairly be- 
come a matter of national pride that scientific men were found 
in our country bold enough to venture on grades by which 
any mountain may be passed.” ‘The italics are the captain's 
and suggest the inquiry, how comes it that such slight recog- 
- nition has been accorded to the race of indomitable engineers 
who pioneered the winning of our west from the barriers of 
“absolute mountain, absolute forest and absolute solitude” 
that less than three-quarters of a century ago this author said 
separated the East from the West? 

When Captain Mayer drove out to Braddock’s Battle Field 
from Pittsburgh he found that a hundred years had obliterated 
every trace of the conflict. Somewhat in the rear of the cen- 
tral house shown in the sketch, he says, “was the hottest 


ees 7 HISTORY “OR SAMERICAN SRAILWV ATS 


part of the battle, for ploughmen have found it to be a perfect 
arsenal of balls, bullets, arrow-heads and hatchets. At pres- 
ent it is waving with grain; through the midst of it the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad has laid its iron track, and the yell of the 
savage is exchanged for the shriek of the engine.” 

What was to become the 
Pennsylvania Railroad was 
opened through all rail from 
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 
December, 1852. 

The Baltimore & Ohio 
reached Wheeling on _ the 
Ohio river January 1, 1854. 

The New York, Erie & 
Western completed its line to 
Lake? Erie on sApril: 22,1351. 

The consolidated lines of 
the New York Central and 
Hudson River Railroad fin- 
ally linked up New York with 
Buffalo in 1853. 

In these four events you 
have a summary of the 
master achievements in rail- 





ADVERTISEMENT OF REDUCED 
TIME—1851 ; 


Pittsburgh to Philadelpia, 46 hours way construction on this con- 


Pittsburgh to Baltimore, 44 hours ? ee 
tinent within twenty-five 


years after the first steam locomotive was built in America. 

While the opening of communication between Philadelphia 
and Pittsburgh by canal and railway belongs to the preceding 
decade, the all rail route was left to be completed in that now 
under discussion. 

The rail route consisted of the piecing together of the 
state owned line from Philadelphia to Columbia; the Harris- 
burg, Portsmouth, Mt. Joy and Lancaster R. R. from Columbia 
to Harrisburg; the Pennsylvania R. R. thence to Hollidays- 
burg, where it linked up with the state owned Portage road 
with its inclined planes over the Allegheny mountains to 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 Va gs: 


Johnstown and thence to Pittsburgh over the Pennsylvania 
Railroad. 

The reader will remember how, after many vicissitudes, 
the first horse railroad was pushed through from Philadelphia 
to Columbia on the Susquehanna. It was not until 1836 that 
the horse was finally relegated to the stables as the motive 
power on this incipient trunk line. The reader will also re- 





BRADDOCK BATTLE FIELD IN 1857 


member how in 1842 the novelist Charles Dickens took the 
canal boat at Columbia and was wafted, so to speak, at the 
rate of two miles an hour up the Susquehanna river to the 
mouth of the Juniata, along which tortuous stream he was 
carried by boat up into the heart of the Alleghenies at Holli- 
daysburg. There he was hoisted by five inclines into the 
rarified mountain atmosphere 2,800 feet above the sea level, 
to be dropped down to Johnstown on the other side. Thence 
he took another boat for Pittsburgh. 

This afforded a varied and romantic experience in early 
American travel to the English novelist, but it had its disad- 
vantages, very apparent to the shrewd commercial minds of 
Philadelphia, who saw that city’s interests imperiled by the 
building of the Baltimore & Ohio to the South and the Erie 
canal and rail connections reaching out from New York to 
the great lakes at the north. So along in April, 1846, the 
Pennsylvania Railroad got a charter to build a railroad from 


114 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


ooo 


Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, or other place in the county of Alle- 
gheny, with authority to extend the road or a branch thereof 
to Erie, as might be deemed most expedient. The capi- 
tal of the company was placed at $7,500,000 with the privilege 
of increasing it to $10,000,000. The charter provided that in case 
the company should have a certain sum of money in its treasury 
and fifteen miles of road under construction at each terminus 
prior to July 30, 1847, the law granting the Baltimore & Ohio 
a right to build from Cumberland, Maryland, to Pittsburgh should 
be null.and void. These conditions were promptly complied with, 
to the discomfiture of parties interested in the rival company. 

It will be of present interest to recall that the originators 
of this enterprise took great pains to enlist popular co-opera- 
tion in their undertaking. Committees went from house to 
house in Philadelphia canvassing for subscriptions; public 
meetings were held everywhere; the press was actively favor- 
able to a project that meant so much to the commonwealth, 
and no stone was left unturned that promised a subscription. 
The first annual report to the directors records that out of 
2,600 subscriptions on the books nearly 1,800 were for five 
shares or under. 

Work was pushed steadily from either end, so that by 
September, 1850, the line was opened to the Mountain House, 
near Hollidaysburg, where connection was made with the 
state owned Portage railroad over the Allegheny mountains. 
The gap between Johnstown and Pittsburgh was speedily com- 
pleted and, by using the Portage inclines, cars were run 
through from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh on December 10, 
1850. 

In February, 1854, the Pennsylvania Railroad completed 
its own road over the Allegheny mountains, thus bringing 
its line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh into use. It was orig- 
inally intended to be built as a single track road, but as the — 
work progressed it was deemed advisable to make provision 
for a second track, and this was laid on the Mountain Division 
and for considerable stretches on other parts of the line. The 
cost of the road in 1854, exclusive of equipment, was approxi- 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 115 





mately $12,700,000, and practically all of this money was 
raised from the sale of capital stock at par, although a portion 
of the capital came from loans 
made*in 1852. The out- 
standing amount of capital 
stock at par on January 1, 
1854, amounted to $11,228,020, 
on which 6 per cent interest 
was paid until the payment 
of dividends began in May, 
18567 +. 

But many vexatious mat- 
ters between the company 
and the state remained to be 
adjusted before the road 
couldyabercleared™ for. the 
great part it was destined to 
play in the settlement of the 
American _ transportation 
problem. The State of Penn- 
sylvania had invested over |, BDOAR Towson ser 
$33,000,000 in canals and rail- 
Poads;sand.-that-part known as the “Main Line of- Public 
Works” was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857. 
The cost of the “Main Line” to the State, as reported by the 


Auditor General in 1843, was as follows: 





COMER SPE mG nk eae ieke ae Rey, SEO Ror eke Bee $ 4,204 ,969.96 
Bra sverte caivicion olicanal 26 iret es Fc Apia eos 1,736,599.42 
etiam LU ISI ONL Ol SCANAL 6 Mao ea ce ars. hee S52b 41221 
PROTO ES AAI SOAL ces ok eiott Siete al Biocon ate 1,828 461-38 
WeSretnl division of Catialt oo: 3) wih. J allad 3,069,877.38 

POtaines ws “Bip Chad 5 Ae Mya i agp es le es ee ge kB $14 361,320.35 


In the final adjustment of the differences between the 
State and the railroad, the latter paid to the State of Penn- 
sylvania $13,570,000. 

In this connection it is interesting to recall the hard bar- 
gain which the State imposed on the railroad in the nature 
of a tonnage tax of 5 mills per mile for each ton carried 
eimore than §20 ‘miles* over. the road between March 


116 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





INTERIOR OF FIRST CLASS PASSENGER .COACH, 1852 


and December of each year, but not during the winter months, 
because the State owned canal could not then be operated, 
and the railroad would not then be competing with the State 
Line of Public Works. A supplement to the original Act 
incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad, provided for the re- 
duction of the tax to 3 mills per ton per mile during the entire 
year, instead of 5 mills between March and December, and if, 
after completion of the road, this reduction should not yield 
as much revenue to the State as the 5-mill rate, the latter 
was to be restored at the option of the Legislature. Upon 
its purchase of the Main Line of Public Works in 1857, the 
Act provided that the Company should be discharged from 
the payment of this tonnage tax. This Act was declared 
unconstitutional, with the result that the company found itself 
in possession of the Public 
Works, and at the same time 
burdened with this - tonnage 
tax. The final outcome was 
the passage of an Act on 

ey ee March /th, 1861, commuting 
Pn en Nee are ae this tonnage tax provided the 





THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 WL 


Pennsylvania Railroad would pay the State the sum of 
$460,000 annually until July 31st, 1890. The final cost to 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, including interest, was approxi- 


mately $15,500,000. 
On to the Mississippi 


Having successfully passed the great barrier of mountain 
ranges that separated the East from the West in the ’50s, 
the promoters of these early railways cast longing eyes on 
the great plains that stretched invitingly before them. But 
they found that other railway pioneers had preceded them 
and covered Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa and 
the States to the South with a perfect network of projects. 
Many of these dated back to the preceding decades, only to 
be abandoned when everything went blue in the financial 
depression that extended from 1837 to 1844. 

So it was that the New York Central interests found the 
Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern Railroads ready 
to connect up with their lines at Buffalo for the through 
routes to Chicago, while several other lines, since consolidated 
into the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway 
(Big Four), afforded it direct access to the principal centers 
of the West. 

The Pennsylvania found another group of nascent rail- 
roads, none too prosperous, ready for its consolidating hand. 
These were finally gathered into the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne 
& Chicago Railway, which it had helped to promote and 
finance. Some of the rails which were taken from the State 
owned Portage Railroad were used on the Fort Wayne road. 
This furnished a direct route from New York, Philadelphia 
and Washington to Chicago, and, while the Pittsburgh, Fort 
Wayne & Chicago Railway was leased to the Pennsylvania 
for 999 years from 1869, it was some years later before this 
entire route from New York to Chicago came under direct 
control of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Starting at 
Pittsburgh from its eastern connection, the Pennsylvania 
pieced together several lines to which it had rendered financial 
assistance and by which it reached successively Columbus and 


118 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Cincinnati, Ohio, then Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, 
and so on to St. Louis. 

The Erie, or the New York, Lake Erie & Western, as it 
was originally called, was stopped in its tracks at Dunkirk 
by its 6-foot gauge, which was not reduced to 4 feet 8% inches 
until 1878. Its story from then on to late in the century was 
involved in financial shallows and quicksands that have dis- 
tracted popular attention from its great services to the social 
and commercial interests of the Union. At this time the Erie 
had connection out into Ohio over the broad gauged track of 
the Atlantic & Great. Western trom) Salamanca, Waey 
Dayton, O. 

The Baltimore & Ohio System, after reaching Wheetes 
pursued its meandering way across the intervening territory 
to Chicago on such local stepping stones as the Central Ohio 
Railroad, the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad and 
the Newark, Somerset & Straitsville Railroad to finally reach 
its objective under its own name from Chicago Junction, Ohio, 
to Baltimore Junction, Illinois. From Cumberland its south- 
ern branch, via Parkersburg and Cincinnati, reached its objec- 
tive at St. Louis. os 

The detail history of the railways through the Central 
West is a story of faith, hope and disappointment. Their 
promoters had everything necessary to success—vision, cour- 
age, enterprise and energy—but lacked financial resources. 

The stringency of funds for railway construction was em- 
phasized and probably tightened by the specter of State regula- 
tion that began to hover over all rail projects and heralded 
its approach by asserting the right to violate the early char- 
ters that granted authority to fix rates within certain maxima. 
In different charters these maxima ran as high as 13 cents a 
ton mile. The charter of the Petersburg Railroad prohibited 
charging more than 13 cents per ton mile, that of the Balti- 
more & Ohio forbade freight charges exceeding 4 cents a 
ton mile. Between these rates the carriers were permitted 
to fix almost any rate the traffic would bear and they very 
generally fixed them low enough to De the canals out of 
business. 


THIRD* DECADE, | 1850-1860 et, 





South of the Ohio river the forerunners of the Louisville 
& Nashville and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis were 
feeling their way into the western half of what in the next 
decade was to be the Southern Confederacy. Railway build- 
ing throughout the South Atlantic States during this period 
was fully abreast of that at the North. In 1860 Georgia, with 
1,420 miles open, ranked next to Indiana in completed mile- 
age. In that year the completed mile to population was as 
follows: 





Miles of 
Railway Population 

AMG aa Naa le dae ae Oe ann in Ee ed 743 964,201 
Pei ei Sead Meats ye Ge deen CYR a cate wares 38 435,450 
SUG CaN AES.) Mae amas Peeees hee pares Zo 379,994 
POE RECO teint hoa. Bac e al. s Heck 601 460,147 
re lanveat Chet c os ee ease hg Vaan ean Lee 112,216 
TORIC A eh oe Ney wae Oe Cols tt 402 140,424 
(TCHR SAT pee aad ee Eee IE ee a 1,420 1,057,286 
SATE oF ca Me aa one ee pel i ke ne 2,799 & 1,711,951 
LMGP Naat y ope tgh Bpenle > Jae) eee ees 2163 & 1,350,428 
Wey ei oe site ee ie be gehaeS o 655 674,913 
Kentucky RAI yee, lt Tee fe eee 534 1,155,684 
Peeiera tia ins, Bet a yek ict Secs §oit 6) 335 708,002 
row Fem ea etn ee ty Pe 472 628,279 
Nrarnylatie wands) 7 fc: Fok. os. 386 762,129 
WP SeaU SCL Ses Wes: fea contsbelor chrh ats 1,264 1,231,066 
1A Ve) 8 Cade Ase See amt Ro Oe Ba a A a oe RSE 779 749,113 
ios teet tee ee ces oo kes ho oe ome 862 791,305 
GSS Tit tele et te ues ee es asa gc oS 817 1,182,012 
INGA eels SMa h eer eee vain Jak Xa 661 326,073 
Dre wveh Bese ven eat can, Suis steams «es 560 672,035 
PNW Wad OE cl Bene tae Oe Ean nee i we 2,682 3,880,735 
North: Carolina: 2.3... A Rae ie cee oS 937 992,622 
TO ee ee ee ee a a he a BOAG Cine, Sooo oa | 
Penisylyatiatye east eat on. s; 2,598 2B 2,906,215 
[Pel Pepitee o RAE Wade Pear eee Pier gee 108 174,620 
SOU CLakett Olay wee, Sot p as ce a aie 973 703,708 
at 0S CCP Ne cs eee be koh ons ee £253 1,109,801 - 
Sle Ae ee A Os Ne oat Gi nc a 307 604,215 
reat OUl Laren otk ie eerie hc sed cme eres 554 315,098 
LVilae icity Bey fat SAE det tweaks Bales 1,379 1,596,318 
NV GS CO SAM Me PETA NT. tia Sots ye cial te acs 905 775,881 

EIR CES Wee. eETea alee ree Oke ule 30,635 29,791,431 


Increase, 10 years—239.6 per cent. 


The youthful reader cannot fail to note that the general trend 
of all this early railway construction was westward. Its pro- 
moters, engineers and surveyors were followers of the sun. 
Nevertheless there was one noteworthy exception. From 


120 HISTORY OP: AMERICAN: RAILWAYS 


its first inception the Illinois Central Railway was conceived 
and designed to be a main traveled railroad running length- 
wise from end to end of Illinois. Among the railways con- 
templated under the State Act of 1837, for which the sum of 
$11,315,099 was appropriated, the “Central Railroad,” as it 
was named, was projected to traverse Illinois from “the con- 
fluence of the Ohio and Mississippi” at Cairo, through the 
western terminus of the Illinois & Michigan Canal at La 
Salle to Galena on the Mississippi near the extreme north- 
west corner of the State. Of the sum mentioned as appro- 
priated, which was for general internal improvements, 
$3,500,000 was apportioned to the “Central.” After $506,000 
of this had been expended, mostly on surveys and preliminary 
work, the plan was abandoned. Several attempts to revive 
the enterprise made no headway until, in 1851, a charter was 
granted to a new company to avail itself of the grant of public 
lands by Congress to the State of Illinois for the building of 
a railroad from Cairo to Chicago. With this aid and the 
change in the destination of the road, its construction began 
in earnest and was prosecuted with such vigor that by 1856 
the main line from Cairo to Chicago and from Centralia to 
Dunleith, opposite Dubuque on the Mississippi, was com- 
pleted and opened for traffic. 

Under the terms of its charter this entitled the railroad 
company to receive title to some 2,595,000 acres of land along 
its right of way. This grant was made conditioned on the 
railway company paying 7 per cent out of its gross earn- 
ings from the line built under it in the State into the State 
Treasury of Illinois, in lieu of other taxes. That provision 
has proved a most profitable one to the State, which from 
this source alone has received many times over the value of 
the lands granted. Up tothe end ‘of 1922 this chartenstax 
amounted to $54,380,586, whereas the normal tax covering the 
same period would not have exceeded $24,000,000. Before the 
railroad was built the land it received was for the most part 
unsalable at $1.25 per acre. Within six years of the com- 
pletion of the road it had disposed of 1,300,000 acres and was 
offering the remaining, 1,200,000 at prices ranging from $6 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 121 





to $25 per acre. First class farming land at that time was 
selling at about $10 to $12 an acre. When it is considered 
that even then the Illinois Central went through such centers 
as Vandalia, Bloomington, Dixon, Freeport, Mendota, Cen- 
tralia, Mattoon and Urbana, the price seems almost incredible. 





TRAIN ENTERING RANDOLPH STREET STATION OF ILLINOIS 
CENTRAL RAILROAD. IN CHICAGO IN 1857 
(See plans for new station in chapter XI.) 


If the reader would appreciate the full strategic value of 
the Illinois Central at the time it was opened, let him study 
a railway map of the United States of that period. With the 
extension of the Illinois Central over the New Orleans & 
Jackson and the Mississippi Central Railways to New Orleans, 
he will perceive that this road skirted what was then the out- 
skirts of railway construction from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
northernmost point in Illinois. It is rarely over fifty miles 
east from the Mississippi, and only in the center of Illinois 


122 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





does it wander a hundred miles from the “Father of Waters.” 
Rather, the “Father” does the wandering. Where the river, 
by reason of its serpentine windings, takes 1,700 miles from 
Dubuque to the Gulf, the direct rail gets there in 950. This 
difference alone, if the rail transportation possessed no other 
advantage, was enough to put the Mississippi out of the car- 
rying business, except for local traffic. 


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































FIRST MICHIGAN CENTRAL TRAIN IN DEARBORN IN 1855 
Then a post village ten miles west of Detrcit—Now the home town of Henry Ford 


Few Tracks West of the Mississippi 


In 1860 the steam locomotive had not made its appearance 
on the far side of the Mississippi at more than half a dozen 
points. A beginning had been made to connect Vicksburg 
with Shreveport. There was a short line into Arkansas con- 
necting Memphis with Little Rock. From St. Louis several 
roads started west, but none of them had reached Kansas 
City. Des Moines, Iowa, was the center of three “railways 
in progress” with none completed. Council Bluffs was the 
objective of a line in the survey stage. Eliminating the four 
states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa, that vast 
territory west of the Mississippi was without a railway track 





PHAIKDCDEGADE, 1850-1860 123 


except for 23 miles in California and 307 miles in Texas. Dis- 
regarding these lonely 330 miles, this meant that more than 
half (63 per cent) of the land area of the United States only 
sixty odd years ago was absolutely without the means of the 
easy transportation that had brought comfort and prosperity 
to the eastern section of the Union. It is doubtful if there 





DANIEL WEBSTER—THE FIRST AMERICAN COAL BURNING 
LOCOMOTIVE 
—Courtesy S. M. Felton, son of the builder. 


was a farmer or resident in all that trackless territory who 


would not have given the shirt off his back to hear those— 
Two low whistles quaint and clear, 


That was the signal the engineer— 
‘That. was the signal Guild, ’tis’ said— 
Gave to his wife at Providence, 
As through the sleeping town and thence, 
Out in the night, 
On to the light, 
Down past the farms lying white he sped! 


The Land Grant Period 


Such was the situation that caused and explained the ready 
response of Congress and state legislatures to appeals for 
erants of public lands. The year 1850 was to see the inau- 
guration of a national policy of granting lands in aid of rail- 
way construction. The subject had been buffeted about in 
Congress for a score of years. What between state jeal- 
ousy, constitutional inhibition, the slavery question and bitter 


124 HISTORY OF AMERICAN” RAILWAYS 





dissension over the tariff, Congress backed and filled on prop- 
ositions to give the railways pre-emption rights or outright 
land grants, and from 1833 to 1850 ended by doing nothing. 

Now the need to do something was obvious, if the most 
necessary of all pending internal improvements was not to 
fail in its mission of uniting the distant sections of the country 
in the bonds of commercial, social and industrial union. The 
separate states had essayed the task of helping to finance 
these improvements, but the states that needed them most 
were least able to bear the burden. They could neither build 
and operate the railways themselves nor back private compa- 
nies. The result was disastrous, driving some states into in- 
solvency and even to a repudiation of debts so incurred. The 
canals and post roads in which the states had invested 
so heavily had been generally obsolete almost before they 
were open for traffic. 

At this time the Federal government was long on land 
and short on ready cash. The public domain in the ’50s has | 
been summarized as follows: 


States icessionscitatres) saeco a ee 258,504,129 
Louisiana: purchases! S034. te ae 750,686,855 
Floridaspurchase. 715100 us nee 35,264,500 
Mexican cession, 1848 ‘/.......... 329,623,255 
Léexas purchase 1350 2 ae. eine cee 62,266,953 
Gadsden purchase, 1653"-4) 200 ate 29,142,400 

Totaly.t: tas ao ore 1,465,488,092 


The Alaskan purchase in 1867.added 369,520,600 acres to 
this total; but little to its market value, being bought for 
$7,200,000 cash—that is, 2 cents an acre, which probably fixed 
the lump sum. In 1850 the Government could not give its 
land away in wholesale lots at $1.00. 


Such was the land situation in the United States in 1850, 
when Stephen A. Douglas, only recently elected to the Senate, 
began his successful campaign for the Illinois Central land 
grant with all the ability and political sagacity of which he 
was master. A similar bill had passed the Senate in a_pre- 
vious session, and by coupling the Illinois grant with one for 
a like grant from Alabama and Mississippi to the Mobile & 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 Vs 


Ohio the necessary votes were shifted from those states in 
the South to insure its passage. As this bill set the form for 
others that followed, its general features may be summarized 
as applying to all. 

The Act of September 20, 1850, granted lands to Illinois 
for a road from the southern terminus of the Illinois and Mich- 
igan canal to a point at or near the junction of the Ohio and 





“OREGON OR BUST” WAGON OF THE ’50s. 


Note the automobile in the background, of which neither man nor quadruped dreamed 
as they plodded their weary way toward the yellowing sunset 


Mississippi rivers with a branch of the same to Chicago on 
Lake Michigan and another via the town of Galena to Du- 
buque in the State of Iowa. The main line was to be built 
within six years. The lands of the road were to be exempt 
from taxation and in lieu of this 5 per cent of the gross in- 
come of the road each year was to be paid into the state 
treasury. Besides giving a right of way for 100 feet on either 
side of the road, the bill conveyed to the railway company 
the alternate even numbered sections of unpre-empted land, 
within six miles of the road, with a proviso, introduced by 
Jefferson Davis, then senator, restricting the choice of lands 
in lieu of pre-empted lands to those within fifteen miles of 


126 HISTORY »OF AMERICAN *RAILWAYS 





the road, for he considered this as far as a loaded team could 
go and return in a day. The line was to remain a public 
highway for the use of the Government, and mail was to 
be transported for such price as Congress might direct. If 
the road was not completed within ten years, the lands should 
revert to the Government and the state should pay the United 
States the amount received from the lands already sold. 

The same general features appear in the grants to other 
states. Subsequently, however, the grants were increased 
from six to ten miles and the indemnity limits from fifteen 
to twenty miles. The grants to the Pacific roads, being of 
lands generally in territories, were made directly to the cor- 
porations. 

The Illinois Central was compieted within the time limit, 
with the percentage of revenue in lieu of taxes raised to 7 
per cent; and under the terms, of the Act 1t-received-tmiewe 
2,095,133 acres. Of this, up to 1895, it had disposed of all 
but 87,373 acres and had received something over twenty 
million dollars, or less than $10 an acre. The price fixed in 
1856 was from $5 to $25 an acre, on six years’ credit with 
interest at 3 per cent. Deeds were not given until the entire 
price was paid, so the tax exemption inured to the purchaser 
for six years. 

Besides insuring the prompt building of the road the grant 
to the Illinois Central accomplished the purpose for which it 
was made—the sale of the public lands. These were a drug 
on the market at $1.25 an acre. Coincident with the Act of 
Congress, the price was advanced to $2.50 and by 1855 all 
the Government lands were reported as sold. Thus were all 
the predictions of its advocates fulfilled. Illinois got its cen- 
tral railroad; the Nation its Gulf to Galena connection; the 
Government got rid of its unsalable lands and the people of 
the United States secured transportation facilities for which 
they had been clamoring for a generation. Before the close 
of the decade, Congress had duplicated its grant to Illinois, 
Alabama and Mississippi with grants in aid of railways to 
Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Lou- 
isiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. In 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 127 


almost every instance the conditions of the grants were ful- 
filled and everywhere the Government and the people reaped 
benefits far beyond those they bestowed. 

Writing on this subject in Bulletin No. 30 of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin (1899), Professor John Bell Sanborn, to 
whom I am indebted for much of the foregoing, says: 

“These lands have not been the source of wealth to the 
roads that is commonly supposed. Even in the case of the 
largest grants the balance for the whole period is quite small 
and in many cases the land departments are now a source of 
expense rather than of revenue.” The average price obtained 
was under $10 per acre. “Comparing the building of the 
roads which received land grants,” he continues,” with those 
that did not, it seems that there was no particular need for 
most of the grants. Unaided roads were built along similar 
routes even faster than aided ones. The great transconti- 
nental roads, however, probably needed the assistance in the 
shape of lands or bonds to secure their construction at the 
time they were built.” 

Throughout the history of railway building in the United 
States the brains, the constructive capacity, the untiring en- 
ergy and resourcefulness, the vision, courage and pertinacity 
put in their work by the leading spirits of the day counted 
for far more than anything in the form of appropriations of 
land or bonds. The land had to be sold for a song and the 
bonds had to be redeemed. 

Abraham Lincoln in Congress and later in the White 
House never hesitated to lend public assistance to the one 
medium that promised to unite farm and factory for the com- 
mon weal. He would have preferred to see the Illinois land 
grant without the enhancement in price of the land retained, 
but accepted the principle of Senator Douglas’ bill. 


Lincoln .on Railways and Waterways 


It was not in connection with land grants, however, that 
the Great Emancipator was to make his most noteworthy 
contribution to railway progress westward across this conti- 
nent. In June, 1854, a party of 250 excursionists, including 


128 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ex-President Fillmore and Charles A. Dana of the New York 


Sun started from Chicago to celebrate the completion of the 
Chicago & Rock Island Railroad to the Mississippi opposite 


Davenport. It traveled in two sections and took eighteen 
hours to cover the distance now easily negotiated in eight. 
The rails ended at Rock Island on the eastern bank of the 





FIRST WOODEN BRIBGE ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI AT DAVENPORT, 
TA; 1859 


river. It was at that point that the great rivals—railways 
and waterways—were to come to grips, and the precedence 
of the rail over the boat for interstate transport was to be 
demonstrated and decided. In that decision Abraham Lincoln 
played a leading part. 

With the coming of the rails to the river bank, steps were 
immediately taken to build a bridge across to Rock Island and 
thence by a longer structure to the Iowa: shore. The steam- 
boat interests at once took alarm and invoked the aid of the 
Secretary of War, who happened to be Jefferson Davis, to 
withhold permission for bridging navigable waters. Applica- 
tion was made to the Federal Court for an injunction against 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 129 


the rail intruders. Justice John McLean of the Supreme 
Court denied the injunction, the bridge was built, and on 
April 2lst the locomotive named the “Des Moines” crossed 
to the Iowa shore. “On the following day,” says the narra- 
tive, “three locomotives coupled together with two tenders 
and eight passenger cars crossed the new bridge today.” 














PRESENT STEEL BRIDGE, OVER THE MISSISSIPPI (1923) 


Fourteen days later the Louisville-New Orleans packet 
“Effie Alton,” sent north from St. Louis, passed through the 
draw ; but 200 feet above the bridge one of her wheels stopped 
and she was swept against the bridge, took fire, which spread 
to the span and destroyed it. The owner of the “Effie Alton” 
brought suit against the Railroad Bridge Company. Mr. Lin- 
coln was employed by the defense and made his memorable 
argument in which he foresaw the traffic going over the bridge 
exceeding that passing under it. He urged that the Missis- 
sippi, that great channel of trade “extending from where it 
never freezes to where it never thaws,’ should not block the 
travel from East to West which was building up new com- 


130 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





munities with a rapidity never before seen in the history of 
the world. “This current of travel,’ said he, “has its rights 
as well as that of North and South. If the river had not the 
advantage in priority and legislation we could enter into free 
competition with it and we could surpass it.” 

The jury disasreed and was discharged, but another suit 
was brought in the Federal 
District Court for Iowa and 
the bridge was declared a 
nuisance and piers lying with- 
in the State of Lowa were or- 
dered removed. This de- 
cision was reversed on appeal. 
In its decision the Supreme 
Court held that according to 
rae the assumption of the bill “no 

FIRST NIAGARA SUSPENSION lawful bridge could be built 
Begun in 1852; opened March 8, 1855 across the Mississippi any 
ee heuE where. Nor could harbors or 
rivers be improved; nor could ’the great facilities to commerce, 
accomplished by the invention of railroads, be made available 
where great rivers had to be crossed.” 

Thus was the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln in favor of the 
survival of the fittest form of transportation imbedded in the 
supreme law of the land. The accompanying illustrations 
show the first bridge across the Mississippi and the present 
Steel structure that) has’ replaced=itt 





Bridging Niagara 


It has been said that there are only three ways of cross- 
ing a river—by a bridge, a ferry or a ford. In their progress 
across the continent the railways have known only the first 
two, unless the numerous piers in some of the early. bridges 
could be considered as so many stepping stones in the cross- 
ing of broad and shallow rivers. Until quite recently the ma- 
jority of roads entering New York City, or Manhattan as it 
is now called, did so by ferries from New Jersey, the New 
York Central controlling the entrance by a bridge over the 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 131 





Harlem river, or straits as it was originally named. When 
the railways first reached Buffalo they had the chojce to ferry 
across Niagara river above the Falls or making a detour 
around Lake Erie by what is now the Lake Shore route. The 
Canada Southern across the peninsula of Ontario offered a 
tempting level air line route with a ferry at either end. Plans 
were immediately adopted to bridge the gorge of Niagara 
river, and John A. Roebling, the genius of the great Brooklyn 





CANTILEVER BRIDGE AT NIAGARA—OPENED IN 1883 
‘ Note old suspension bridge in background 


bridge, was the engineer employed to draw the plans and exe- 
cute the work. Construction was begun in 1852 and the 
bridge was opened for traffic on March 8, 1853. Windsor, on 
the St. Clair river opposite Detroit, was the western terminus 
of the road, and trains were shipped bodily across to Ameri- 
can soil on large ferry boats. Quite recently the use of ferries 
has been largely circumvented by a tubular tunnel under the 
river, made possible by electrical motors. Long before this 
the Grand Trunk of Canada had tunneled the river at Sarnia. 

In the process of development the stone towers of the 
original suspension bridge at Niagara were replaced by steel 





HISTORY OF AMERICAN 


STEEL ARCH SPAN OVER NIAGARA RIVER—1924 


RAILWAYS 





skeletons and the 
chasm was spanned 
by a new steel can- 
tilever And as this 
is written otire se 
structures have been 
supplemented by a 
giant steel arch 
bridge. “Phe allus- 
trations. te Lieu 
story of evolution in 
railway bridges bet- 
ter than columns of 
technical descrip- 
tion, 


What the Early 
Railways Cost 


It is very difficult 
to arrive at a con- 
vincing estimate of 
what 1t -costqeto 
finance, construct 
and equip the early 
American railways. 
From the beginning 
there was no stan- 
dard by which to 
measure the ex- 
pense. Everything 
was experimental. 
The engineer of the 
period did not know 
from day to day 
what new _ proposi- 
tion would be 
sprung on him over 
night. Not a single 
through system got 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 133 


to the end of its proposed route with the same form of struc- 
tures and equipment with which it started out. Rails, ties, 
ballast, joints, switches—all underwent a constant and some- 
times radical process of evolution. There was no resemblance 
between the locomotives, passenger cars and freight cars of 
1830 and those of 1860. The difference between the 5-ton 
“Stourbridge Lion” and the 28-ton locomotive that scaled the 
Alleghenies in the ’50s may be said to fairly measure the dif- 
ference that existed between the rail facilities of the two per- 
iods. Everything in between had been discarded and replaced, 
at constantly increasing cost and in face of recurring financial 
panics. : 

It has been estimated that the total investment in the 
30,635 miles of line completed in 1860 was $1,150,000,000, or 
about $37,000 per mile. Railway acccounting was very loose 
and careless on many of the roads through those constructive 
days. Uniform accounting was a long way off even after the 
Civil War. But $37,000 a mile may be accepted as a reason- 
able average cost in 1860. 

For the purpose of subsequent comparison, it may ,be well 
to give the following estimated cost of equipment for the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in 1854: 


8 locomotives @ $9,000 ..... i ash $ 72,000 
Brpassenper. cares (0) 2,100) 28s. cow an 16,800 
SEAS CAGE CCES I bl OU toe aa ee 6,400 
/Ovycicht! cars; OS) G00 eis t ac: 45,500 
Platform ane coravelscaree asc sisaex ¢. 25,000 

SES Perret codes GaP wh 2 Fn Ae rds | aah $165,700 


As an illustration of how enthusiastic estimates invited 
well-nigh ruinous results, the case of the Ohio & Mississippi, 
built in the ’50s as an extension of the Baltimore & Ohio, may 
be cited. A distinguished engineer who was invited to con- 
duct the survey of the line reported that “throughout the 
entire distance from Cincinnati to St. Louis no grade exceed- 
-ing forty feet to the mile had been found necessary.” He 
estimated the entire cost of construction and equipment at 
$6,000,000, which he subsequently revised in detail to $5,045,- 
-000. The first contract called for $9,000,000, and before it 
-was completed the cost had risen to $20,000,000, or $58,800 


134 FISTORY (OF “AMERICAN VRAILIVALS 


per mile, which had been extracted from different sources 
with increasing difficulty. But the faithful chronicler of the 
day concludes: 

“Though individuals have lost, the country has gained. 
The road is worth the money.” 

It was such experiences as this, running through succes- 








THE AMOSKEAG 
A fine model of 1851 
—Photo American Locomotive Company 


sive reorganizations, that lapped up the millions of water that 
kept the life in American railways from 1837 to 1860. 


St. Paul Sees Visions 


In 1853 St. Paul, located on the Mississippi below the falls 
of St. Anthony, was a thriving town of some 5,000 inhabitants 
who firmly believed that they held the key to all the vast 
region north and west of them. In the morning they looked 
hopefully to the East, impatiently waiting for the completion 
of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad to Dubuque. It 
was already open to Rockford. On this they relied for trans- 
portation to Chicago and thence to “New York, Boston and 
almost any other place you please,” as expressed by the histo- 
rian of that day. In the, evening the same inhabitants saw 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 135 


a vision in the western sky of “the early completion of a rail- 
road from the Mississippi to San Francisco,” to quote a writer 
of that same period, who asserted that he was not dreaming 
dreams. His vision followed the route of what he termed 
“the magnificent enterprise of the North Pacific Railroad.” 
With St. Paul as its starting point, it was headed for the 





LOCOMOTIVE BUILT FOR THE HUDSON RIVER R. R. IN 1860 
(Total weight 108,000 Ibs.) 
—Courtesy of American Locomotive Co. 


great bend of the Missouri river; thence on the table-land be- 
tween the Missouri and Saskatchewan, searching for some 
eligible pass in the Rocky mountains; and so on down the 
Pacific slope to Puget’s Sound. The loyal citizen of St. Paul 
had no hesitation in pronouncing the “Central Pacific Route” 
impracticable, because, as he said, “the country through which 
it passes is generally unfit for cultivation; the altitude of the 
summit is greater; the snows deeper; in brief, that route is 
out of the question.” He was inclined to concede, however, 
without local jealousy, “that there is a route farther south, 
through Texas or New Mexico and along the Gila to San 
Diego or through Walker’s Pass to some point farther north” 
that might be practicable. 

There was one fly in the St. Paul cup of optimism that 
disturbed his dreams. This was nothing less than that his 
railroad by the northern route might be forestalled by another 


136 HISTORY OF AMERICAN _ RAILWAYS 





railroad, one farther north, that rumor told him the British 
Government contemplated building north of Lake Superior 
from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the Pacific. 

The true son of St. Paul also indulged in day dreams of 
“a continuous line of railroad from New Orleans to the falls 
of St. Anthony, running on the west side of the Mississippi 
River through the best portions of Arkansas, Missouri, lowa 
and Minnesota.” Here he failed to read the handwriting 





FAST PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE, PENNSYLVANIA R. R.—1867 
Courtesy Baldwin Locomotive Works 


on the wall that had already settled that the connection was 
to be made east of the Mississippi through a territory already 
reclaimed from Nature and her waterways by the iron horse. 

The effect of such optimistic views as here quoted can be 
traced in his regretful confession that “In 1849 I could have 
purchased a quarter of a block, on one lot of which the Pioneer 
office now stands, for two hundred: dollars; now (1853) the 
same property is worth three thousand dollars, without the 
improvements.” The present (1923) value of this block as 
quoted to the writer is $13,500 exclusive of improvements. 
That is the transformation the coming of the railway wrought 
in real estate values in St. Paul; it had even greater effect on 
the farm values in Minnesota. In 1850 the value of all farm 
property in the West-North-Central census division, consist- 
ing of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Da- 
kota, Nebraska and Kansas, was $108,885,147; in 1920 the cen- 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 137 








sus valuation of all farm property in Minnesota alone was 
$3,787 ,420,118, or nearly 36 times greater than the valuation 
of the whole West-North-Central division 70 years before. 

The steel rail was the magic wand by which this amazing 
transformation was brought to pass. 

James J. Hill was a farmer lad of 12 in Canada in 1850. 
He came to the United States in the nick of time to hitch his 
car to the star of empire sailing west that was to bear him 
on to fame and fortune. In that same year his precocious rival, 
Edward H. Harriman, had not attained long trousers. 

Railway annalists are prone to dwell upon the financial 
panics of 1854 and 1857 as the result of the feverish financing 
of railways into the waste places of the republic. There was 
undoubtedly an excess of speculative blood in the veins of the 
- American railway promoters of those days. The pioneer spirit 
refused to be daunted by physical or financial difficulties. 
Where there was room for population in the uninhabited 
spaces of the continent he saw visions of farms, villages and 
towns—all taking on the proportions of metropolitan cities 
and only awaiting the coming of the railway sidings and ter- 
minals. Land and railway speculation went hand in hand to 
the inevitable fall. Many of the bankrupts of those days 
needed only to weather the storm of over-construction to 
have their names enrolled with the empire builders. of 
America. 

And they builded better than they claimed. In the five 
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, 
where railway construction was most rapid, the value of farms 
increased from $671,678,075 in 1850 to $1,738,394,188 in 1860, 
at least one-half of the difference, $1,066,/16,113, was attribu- 
table to the building of roads that bankrupted their builders. 
In the same five states during the same period the production 
of wheat increased nearly 75 per cent and of cattle 60 per cent. 

The first really successful locomotive for burning coal in 
the United States was perfected in 1855. It was named the 
“Daniel Webster.” It ran at half the expense of a wood 
burner of the same class, which it did not wholly supersede 
for more than twenty years. The cut on page 123 is from 


138 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





a photograph of a gold and silver model of the “Webster” 
presented to the inventor in 1865 and now in the possession 
of his son, S. M. Felton, president of the Chicago Great West- 
ern Railroad. The elder Felton is credited with having frus- 
trated the plot to assassinate Lincoln while on his way to 
Washington for his first inauguration. 


The Coming of the Pullman Palace Car 


Toward the close of this decade, through the vision, energy 
and organizing genius of one man, was to come a departure 
in passenger car construction 
destined to place that branch of 
the service in America in the 
forefront of railway progress. 
For a generation little had 
been done to relieve the long 
distance traveler from ‘the 
tedious discomforts of the 
primitive passenger car. As 
railway lines extended their 
tracks: farther sand’ farther 
from the seaboard, these dis- 
comforts became a_ serious 
check -on the naturally no- 
madic instinct of the average 
G. M. PULLMAN IN 1854. American with a dollar in his 


pocket. Only immigrants, 
prospectors and persons traveling on business cared to face a 


night on an American railway train. The allurements and 
luxuries of seeing America first were extolled in the adver- 
tisements of the time only to suffer disillusionment on the 
cramped car seats in realization. The steamers on the Hud- 
son and up the Sound from New York were literally floating 
palaces, with generous staterooms for those who could afford 
to pay and lesser luxuries, but still convenient, for those with 
leaner wallets. : 

The railway sleeper of the early ’50s had not advanced far 
from the makeshifts of the ’30s and 40s. Their builders ap- 





THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 ibe 





parently took canal bunks or shelves for their models. Some- 
times narrow mattresses, hardened into something resem- 
bling granite from frequent usage, were provided; more sel- 
dom an unaired blanket or unlaundered sheet was thrown in 
and the sleeper used his old-fashioned carpetbag for a pillow. 








OLD “NO. 9” PULLMAN’S FIRST COMPLETE SLEEPING CAR 


When he was about to retire his eye fell on the necessary 
warning, “Passengers will please remove their boots before 
getting into the berths.” No curtains shut out the fierce pub- 
licity that beat upon the occupants of those embryo Pullmans. 

Under such conditions a young lad named George M. Pull- 
man took a night train from Buffalo to Westfield, N. Y. The 
distance was not great, but the discomforts were many and 
the conveniences, as we know them, nil. Possibly out of the 





COSTUME PARTY IN THE ORIGINAL PULLMAN CAR 
Note where the Salvation Army lassies got the idea of poke bonnets. 


140 HISTORY * OP GAMERICAN (RAILV AVS. 


—— 


nightmare of that experience he saw visions of the palace 
sleeping cars and hotels on wheels that were to herald his 
name to the ends of the earth. He did not linger long behind 
a country store counter in Westfield, but at the age of seven- 
teen joined an elder brother who was in the cabinet making 
business in Albion, N. Y. 
There he acquired the knowl- 
edge of woods and wood- 
working utilized so extensive- 
ly in his earlier car construc- 
tion. His first venture in 
transportation was in con- 
tracting to move warehouses 
and other buildings back 
from the banks of the Ene 
canal when it was undergoing 
one of its periodic widenings. 
When this was completed, 
Mr. Pullman, now a young 
“man of twenty-four, moved 
with his savings to Chicago, 
where he immediately en- 
gaged as a contractor in the 
great work of elevating the 
streets some fifteen feet above 
INTERIOR OF EARLY DINING CAR the Jeyel of Lake Michigan. 
It was thus that by 1858 Mr. Pullman had already acquired 
the knowledge, experience and organizing ability that was to 
redound to his fame and the comfort of American railway 
travel. 








LATEST, PULLMAN SLEEPER 
Pullman Co. Photo 


De DME CADE, 1850-1860 141 


Rude attempts had been made to build sleeping cars be- 
fore the first Pullman car was tested on the Chicago & Alton 
between Bloomington and Chicago. To the Cumberland Val- 
ley Railroad of Pennsylvania must be awarded the credit of 
installing the first sleeping car service between Harrisburg 
and Chambersburg as early as 1836. It consisted of the adap- 
tation of a second hand day coach to sleeping purposes, being 
divided into four compart- 
patrments with three bunks 
in each, built against one side 
of the car; a roller towel. 
basin and water were pro- 
vided in the rear of the car. 

Whether Mr. Pullman had 
ever seen this car or not, its 
plan of inconveniences had 
little influence on his first at- 
tempt at remodeling two Chi- 
cago & Alton coaches into the 
first Pullman sleepers in 1858. 
The passenger cars put at his 
disposal for the experiment in 
the company’s Bloomington 
shops were forty-four feet 
long and had flat roofs only 
six feet from the floor. Into 
this space he crowded ten 
pe oeeemerinon closcta@and «0 tt Ok WOR RARE ULLMAN 
two wash-rooms. ° They were Note the absence of divisions 
lighted by oil lamps, heated with box stoves and mounted on 
four-wheel trucks with iron wheels. The reconstruction of 
these two cars cost less than $1,000 apiece. The chief novelty 
in them was Mr. Pullman’s invention of an upper berth that 
might be closed up in the day time and serve as a place to 
store mattresses and blankets. 

These experimental cars were a popular success from the 
start, and after a careful study of their shortcomings Mr. 
Puliman proceeded to produce the first real Pullman sleeping 





142 HISTORY” OF “AMERICAN ©RAILWAYS. 


car built from the rail up to fill the requirements of long dis- 
tance travel in America. It was built in a Chicago & Alton 
shed on the site of the Union Station, now about to be 
wrecked to make room for the greater Union Station whose 
completion was delayed by the World War. 

Fully equipped, the “Pioneer,” as it was appropriately 
named, cost $20,178—an unheard of price up to that time, 
when $5,000 was the limit paid for a railway coach. Besides 
its adaptation to day travel as well as for night journeys, the 
“Proneer | dittéered ‘trom sprecedinge= “passenger weoacheaset) 


ee Se Sa ey eee ae = 
ae Seam 


l whe 
(2 pore ee L 


Gunny FP Fe Sea 






















































































L=-aN 





Devowreon raven ans 

















—fT na TW 
=u wy 


PULLMAN SLEEPING CAR OUTLINE, SHOWING HOW IT-IS SUPPLIED 
WITH LIGHT, WATER AND HEAT 

















weight, strength and solidity of construction. It was 54 feet 
long and 10 feet wide—a foot wider and 30 inches higher 
than the old car. The additional height was necessary to 
accommodate the hinged upper berth. These increased dimen- 
sions had an important bearing on railway and car construc- 
tion, for after that all stations and platforms and bridges were 


built to conform to its standard and the only departure there- 
from has been in length. 


With the solution of the physical phase of the sieeping 
car problem, the “Pioneer” and its twin, costing $24,000, had 
to satisfy the doubting Thomases who questioned its supe- 
riority justified such expenditure for single cars. Would the 
public pay for the extra luxury of traveling in the greater 
safety and comfort of these so-called palace cars? Mr. Pull- 
man proposed that the public that paid should decide. The 
Chicago-Springfield train. was equipped with both styles of 


THIRD* DECADE, 1850-1860 143 





cars, Pullmans to charge $2 a 
night, the old style sleepers 
$1.50. The result justified 
Mr. Pullman’s confidence that 
the public would pay a bonus 
for the best. The Pullmans 
carried all they could hold, 
the old style only those who 
could not get sleeping room 
in the new style. In a short 
time the $1.50 sleepers were 
withdrawn, leaving the sleep- 
SraicldetO tie o2,car and 11s 
colored porter... _By_ 186/, 
when the Pullman Palace Car 





PROCESS OF MAKING UP BERTHS 
Company was incorporated, “IN MODERN PULLMAN SLEEPER 


Mr. Pullman owned all the oan 


sleeping cars on the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Burlington 
& Quincy, the Michigan Central, the Great Western of Canada 
and the New York Central Lines— a total of 48 cars. That 
incorporation was to. bear 
fruits no whit less important 
than his original invention. 
{t ‘established a. system 
whereby the best equipment 
for both night and day rail- 
Way journeys was placed at 
the service of the public over 
all the railways, without 
change at connecting points 
Besides being a wonderful 
convenience, this corporation 
had a great part in hastening 
the final adoption by all of 
our railways of the standard 


INTERIOR OF MODERN DINING 4-ft. 8%-in. gauge. 
In the same year the: Pull- 








Mark the simplicity of design 


144 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








OF MODERN DINING 
CARSKIT CHEN 
Built by Pullman Company for, Chicago, 


SECTION 


Burlington & Quincy R. R. in 1924 


man Company built and put 
the first “hotel car” in service 
on the Great Western - of 
Canada. This car, which was 
the predecessor of the dining 
car of today, was in reality a 
combination of a sleeping car 
with a kitchen at one end. 
The meals were served at 
temporary tables between the 
sections, as is still the case 
on some roads, both in Can- 
ada and the United States. 
The dining car, appro- 
priately named “Delmon- 
ico’s,” devoted wholly to eat- 
ing purposes, was personally 


designed by Mr. Pullman in 1868 and, like his first sleeping 
cars, had its initial trip on the Chicago & Alton. 
In May, 1870, the first through train of Pullmans from 


the Atlantic to the Pacific 
carried a distinguish com- 
pany of Bostonians from Bos- 
‘ton to San Francisco in an 
EXCUPSION y .Ol tne. = sbOstOn 
Board of Trade. 

From that time to the 
present the progress of the 
Pullman car has been one of 
continuous development 
along the lines of safety, sim- 
plicity, convenience and 
cleanliness. Few _ persons 
traveling in these cars realize 
at what an expenditure of 
thought, vigilance and money 
the Pullman standard of 





VIEW OF OTHER END OF PULL- 
MAN DINING CAR KITCHEN 


— 


THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860 © 145 





cleanliness is maintained. To provide the mere facilities for 
car cleaning alone the company maintains a force in 225 prin- 
cipal and 150 outlying yards. Jn these are employed a staff 
of over 4,000 cleaners. The company keeps constantly on 
hand no less than 1,858,178 sheets, valued at nearly a million 
dollars. During one year over 100,000,000 pieces of linen, 
including sheets and pillow cases, were washed and ironed. 
All told, the Pullman Com- 
pany has an investment of 
nearly $2,000,000 for approxi- 
mately 7,000,000 separate 
pieces. Replacement alone 
costs over $400,000 a year. 

But the Pullman Company 
has not achieved its monopoly 
without competition and ri- 
valry and does not maintain 
it without constant superior- 
ity of service. 


Among its earliest competi- 
tors was the Mann “Boudoir 
Car,’ in which the beds were 
arranged transversely instead INTERIOR OF LATEST PULLMAN 
of longitudinally. This car Pee See 
met with a very favorable reception in Europe, where its 
general features survive to this day. It was ‘put in service 
in the United States in 1883 between Boston and New York. 
The cars were divided into eight compartments, accommodat- 
ing two or four persons. It was tried on a few western roads, 
but never met with public favor. Having a smaller seating 
capacity necessitated a higher fare, which did not conduce to 
its success. 

The most serious competition encountered was that of the 
Gates Sleeping Car Company, named after its promoter, G. B. 
Gates, general manager of the Lake Shore road. It was 
absorbed by the Wagner Palace Car Compay in 1869. Backed 
by Commodore Vanderbilt, the Wagner Company, whose 
cars resembled closely the Pullman characteristics, was able 











146 HISTORY (OF “AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


to place its cars on the New York Central and its connections. 
In 1881, the Pullman Company brought suit for infringements 
of its patents against the New York Sleeping Car Company 
and Webster Wagner, claiming $1,000,000 damages. The 
suit was compromised on the Wagner Company agreeing to 
use the Pullman improvements under contract to run its cars 
only on the New York Centra! road. 

The rivalry between these 
two companies came to a 
show-down over the use of 
vestibules between cars, 
which Mr. Pullman put in 
operation in 1888. The Wag- 
ner Company promptly ad- 
vestised a vestibule train and 
was as promptly met with an 
injunction holding the Wag- 
ner devices an infringement 
of Pullman patents. After 
protracted hearings the case 
was determined in favor of 
the Pullman Company. 

The so-called “Sessions’ 
patent,” under which the 


GEORGE M. PULLMAN’S HAP- Pullman Company operated, 


PIEST PHOTOGRAGH : : 
—Courtesy of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Was patented in 1881 and cov- 


aps ° ered’ the principles upon 
which the vestibuled train is operated to this day. As orig- 
inally designed the accordion diaphragms were only the 
width of the passageway between the cars. As redesigned 
in 1893 they enclosed the entire platform by means of a drop 
which lowered over the step openings. Among other advan- 
tages the vestibule added greatly to the steadiness and clean- 
liness of the entire train. The rivalry between these compa- 
nies ended with the absorption of the junior by the senior 
organization, greatly to the improvement of the service. 
The manufacturing side of the Pullman Company is an- 


other story, having been separated from the parent company 
in 1924, 





CHAPTER V 


FOURTH DECADE—1860—1870 
KKAILROADS IN THE Civit WAarR—THEN THE UNION PACIF:c 


Hark, I hear the tramp of thousands 
And of arméd men the hum; 
Lo! a nation’s hosts have gathered 
"Round the quick alarming drum,— 
Saying, “Come, 
Freemen, come! 
Ere your heritage is wasted,” said the quick 
alarming drum. 
—Bret Harte. 
Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861. Sumter was fired 


on April 12, 1861. 


O existing general history of the United States does full 

justice to the part played by the railroads from 1861 to 
1865 in the preservation of 
the Union from the disinte- 
erating convulsion of seces- 
sion. Viewed from an impar- 
tial standpoint, the railways 
of the South served their sec- 
tion with _ characteristic 
American devotion and cour- 
age. Operating on interior 
lines from Mason and Dix- 
on’s line to the Gulf, they 
served General Lee with un- 
tiring zeal and loyalty. With 
constantly shrinking facili- 
ties and equipment, they eked 
out dwindling resources of 
men, materials and supplies 
to the bitter end at Appoma- ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
Pema icin) dikes the sole) - ne) peroved)) tie (Location (oy the 





148 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





diers of the Confederacy, the railroad men started the rehab- 
ilitation of their lines from Richmond to Galveston 

Lee’s surrender came through no fault of the railways of 
the South nor by any superiority of patriotism in the railways 
of the North. It followed in 
due course of cause and ef- 
fect from the impetus given 
to settlement and production 
by the rapid laying of rails 
west of the Alleghenies that 
took place from 1850 to 1860. 
When the railways finally 
broke through the barrier 
mountains in the early ’50s, 
the territories to the west of 
Pittsburgh and north of the 
Ohio had a population of only 
4,840,822 and that vast region 
could boast only 1,276 miles 
of rail communication. Before 
Sumter was fired on this same 

THOMAS A. SCOTT, 1824-81 territory had a hardy pioneer 
population of 8,282,750, brought in touch with the outposts 
of the Confederacy by no less than 10,285 miles of line, which 
was being added to every day. 

To realize what these figures mean it is well to remember 
that the South entered upon the conflict with a population of 
12,127,067 and 10,386 miles of 
railway, not all of which was 
available: for, .the =“stragele, 
Fully one-third of the popu- 
lation was colored, and not 
all of the railway mileage was 
in states in active rebellion. 
SO “tare as coreakino “up “the 
Union by force of arms was A SOUTHERN ENGINE OF THE "60s. _ 
concerned, the attempt came fully a decade too late. It is 
not impossible, nor wholly improbable, that it might have suc- 








FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 149 





ceeded in 1850, when over 40 per cent of the Nation’s inhab- 
itants formed a truly “solid South” and the opposing 60 per 
cent was scattered from Skowhegan, Maine, to the Missis- 
sippi, with no completed means of transportation at either 





MAPS SHOWING MARCH OF RAILWAYS—183v-1860 


end. By 1860 the gaps in the North were bridged with steel 
and the recruit from Skowhegan, as from LaCrosse, Wiscon- 
sin, could be carried by rail to any point along the long front 
from the Mississippi to Chesapeake Bay. It may have been 
true, as the fighting Southerner claimed, that he was indi- 
vidually more than a match for the Northeastern Yankee 
But in the great contest he found that Yankee reinforced with 























SF ae see AX: —_ PA 

















BRIDGE, TRAIN, STEAMBOAT AND WOODED LANDSCAPE—1860. 


150 HISTORY -GFE. AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





a new generation bred in the open air west of the mountains 
that scorned fatigue and made a jest of danger. 

It was the West that won the war for the North, and it 
was the railways that settled the West and carried its sons 
on to Vicksburg; to the base of Lookout Mountain; and united 
the West and the East in the day of final victory. The West 
gave Lincoln to the Nation and Grant to the Union army at 





BALDWIN ENGINE, BUILT IN 1861 


Vicksburg and in the Wilderness campaign. They had no 
prototypes, so far as human ken could discern in 1850, when 
Fillmore was president and Jefferson Davis was a power in 
the United States Senate. 

Speculation as to what might have been but for the amaz- 
ing development or the West in 1850-1860, however interest- 
ing, cannot be conclusive. All we know is that the railways 
furnished the means by which the response of the West to the 
Union call, “Lord, we come!’ was made effective as it was 
practically unanimous. 


What One Railway Official Did 


It would take a separate volume to tell the exploits of 
individual railway men on both sides of the line during the 
-war. Their experience and trained services were in demand 
from Washington to Texas in the movement of troops and 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 152 





munitions. They headed construction and _ reconstruction 
gangs all along the frontier as the tide of conflict flowed back- 
ward and forward through those four fateful years. One day 
they tore up miles of track to impede the adversaries’ ad- 
vance, only to see it restored the next day as if by magic by 
the enemy, who was equally quick to put 
it out of business when the tide of combat 
turned. 

The one railroad man who impressed 
his personality high up on the Union side 
of the line was Thomas A. Scott... He 
began his career with the Pennsylvania 
Railroad as station agent at Duncansville 
in 1850 and in ten years, by dint of un- 
usual executive ability and energy, Tose THOME kc cee 
to be vice-president under the direction As he looked during 
of the road’s famous executive J. Edgar Pa ei Solty 
Thomson. Here the war found him, and Governor Curtin 
of Pennsylvania summoned him to his aid to place him in 
charge of the transportation of the state’s troops answering 
by thousands to President Lincoln’s first call. So perfectly 
did he organize the service that it attracted attention in Wash- 
ington, and when Southern sympathizers in Baltimore burned 








TYPICAL BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE OF 1861 
Built for the Pennsylvania Railroad 


152 HISTORY * OP SAMERICAN~ KAILEW Ais 





the bridges of the Northern Central Railroad he was called 
to the National capital to superintend and keep open the road 
from Baltimore to Harrisburg. On April 27th Mr. Scott was 
appointed to take charge of the railways and telegraphs be- 
tween Washington and Annapolis, and, as his work involved 
acting in a military capacity, on May 3, 1861, he was mustered 
into the service as colonel of the United States volunteers. 
His first duty was to construct a line by way of Annapolis to 





BALDWIN PASSENGER AND FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE 
Built for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore R. R. in 1862 


Philadelphia to replace the Northern Central connection 
which had been destroyed. It was a case that admitted of 
no delay—where what had to be done was done so quickly 
that the officials who ordered it done did not know when it 
was done. President Lincoln was one of these to whom the 
immediate opening of the new line meant so much. Meet- 
ing Colonel Scott, he asked him how the work progressed. 

“The road is completed,” replied the colonel. 

“Completed!” echoed the amazed President. “And when 
may we expect troops over it?” 

“A train is already in with a regiment,” responded the 

colonel, “and others are on the way.” 


2 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 153 





“Then, thank God! we are all right again!” exclaimed Mr. 
Lincoln. As a result of Colonel Scott’s promptness there 
were fewer sleepless eyes in Washington that night. 

Before the close of the month Colonel Scott was appointed 
“to take charge of all Government railways and telegraphs 
or those appropriated for the Government,” and on August 1, 
1861, he was appointed assistant secretary of war, a post 
created for him. In this position he was required to visit 
all the great western states to organize their means of trans- 
portation to expedite the preparation and movement of their 





STONE BRIDGE OVER THE SUSQUEHANNA 
At Rockville, Pa., replacing iron truss bridge built in 1877, after previous wooden 
truss partially destrcyed by fire in 1868. 


volunteers for actual service. In the performance of this duty 
alone Colonel Scott traveled some 5,000 miles. 

In June, 1862, Colonel Scott resigned his Federal position 
to resume his duties as an official of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, only to be recalled by Secretary Stanton to report to 
General Hooker for “special service” on his staff. This spe- 
cial service was nothing less than “the duty of sending for- 
ward with the utmost despatch the troops of General Hook- 
er’s command.” It consisted in forwarding Hooker’s and 
Howard’s corps over railroads connected by improvised 
tracks, so that in an incredibly short time he had assembled 
from half a dozen different states an army of fifty thousand 
men, with their artillery, cavalry and complete field equip- 
ment “where it was most needed.” The special order for 
utmost despatch, with its appointment as assistant quarter- 
master of volunteers, was issued from Washington Septem- 


e 


154 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ber 24, 1863; Colonel Scott furnished the necessary despatch 
so that on November 24th Hooker was able to win the “Battle 
Above the Clouds” on Lookout Mountain, and on the follow- 
ing day the Federal army under Grant scaled Missionary 
Ridge, and the siege of Chattanooga was raised. 

With this signal service successfully performed, Colonel 
Scott once more resigned his military title to resume his posi- 
tion as active vice-president of the Pennsylvania. Such spe- 
cial service as Colonel Scott was in a position to render to 
the Union cause was duplicated in other fields by thousands 
of railway men wearing the blue and gray as their fealty to 
state or nation called and as opportunity arose. The decisive 
preponderance of duty as of service was settled for the nation 
by the railroad building of 1850-1860. 


Story of a Confederate Locomotive 


How these respective senses of duty came into sharp and 
unusual conflict may be illustrated by the story of the seizure 





THE FAMOUS LOCOMOTIVE “GENERAL” 
As It Appears in the Union Station at Chattanooga, Tenn. 


Its Seizure by the “Andrews Raiders” and Pursuit by the Confederate Crew is One 
of the Most Thrilling Railway Stories of the Civil War 


and recapture of the famous locomotive ‘‘General,” which 
ever since the war has been an object of interest to all trav- 
elers having’ occasion | to “stop oft at Chattanoocage@n ste 
morning of April 12, 1862, a passenger train on the Western 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 155 





& Atlantic, now a division of the Nashville, Chattanooga & 
St. Louis Railway, under charge of Capt. W. A. Fuller, left 
Atlanta for Chattanooga. At Marietta a party of strangers 
in plain clothes got on board and paid their fares to different 
points. They claimed to be refugees from the Yankee lines 
going to join the Confederate army. In fact they were dis- 
guised soldiers, volunteers from Sills’ brigade, U. S. A., led 
by a Kentuckian named James J. Andrews. 





PASSENGER TRAIN OF 1860 WITH WOOD-BURNING LOCOMOTIVE, 
DELAWARE & HUDSON CO. 


At Big Sandy, seven miles from Marietta, the train stopped 
for breakfast and most of the passengers and crew left the 
train. No sooner had they taken their seats than Captain 
Fuller, looking through a window, saw a body of strangers 
mount the engine and start off rapidly with three freight cars 
detached from the passenger train. Then began as exciting 
a chase as was ever witnessed in peace or war. . Captain Ful- 
ler, his engineer, Jeff Cain, and Anthony Murphy, the fore- 
man of the Western & Atlantic shops, started the pursuit on 
foot, just as the “General” and its crew of raiders, at first 
m*ctaken for Confederate deserters, was disappearing around 


156 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


the first bend in the track. At Moon’s station, two miles 
from Big Sandy, Captain Fuller got news of the fugitives 
that satisfied him they were Federals in disguise, and this 
added greater zest to the pursuit. With the aid of track 
hands, he placed a hand car on the rails and with his two 
companions literally pushed the pursuit, taking turns, two 
running and pushing while the third rested. Now and then 
they had to stop to remove obstructions which the flying Fed- 
erals threw upon the track. At Acworth they secured some 
guns and were joined by two men, who aided greatly in the 
chase. Two miles from Etowah the crew of the “General” 
stopped long enough to take up two rails from the outside 
of a short curve, and the handcar and its crew were ditched. 

At Etowah Captain Fuller found an old engine named the 
“Yonah,” which proved to be a better friend than its name 
suggested. Some time was lost attaching the engine to its 
tender and a coal car for the use of a number of Confederate 
soldiers who volunteered for the grim frolic. From Etowah 
to Kingston the “Yonah” was forced up to sixty miles an 
hour only to find at the latter station that the “General” was 
maintaining its lead. Here the “Yonah” was exchanged for 
another engine named “Texas,” which, with one car, was 
pressed into the service. From Kingston the pursuit was 
much impeded by cross ties dropped from the rear car of 
the “General’s” train. A short distance from Adairsville, 
which is 40 miles from Big Sandy, the “Yankees” had stopped 
long enough to tear up 60 yards of track. 

Nothing daunted, Captain Fuller continued the chase on 
foot and soon outran all of his company except Anthony Mur- 
phy. Two miles from Adairsville he was met by an express 
freight of twenty cars. At his signal it stopped; and under 
his orders it began to back in the direction whence it came, 
with Captain Fuller on the rear car. As it approached the 
switch at Adairsville in this fashion he jumped off, ran ahead 
and changed the switch so as to throw the cars on the side 
track. This accomplished, he changed the switch back to the 
main track and jumped on the engine, which had been un- 








FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 157 


coupled from the cars. This was achieved “so adroitly that 
the train and engine ran side by side for fully three hundred 
yards.” 

The captain’s command had now been reduced to himself, 
Murphy and the engineer, fireman and woodpasser. They 
backed the next ten miles to Calhoun in twelve minutes, which 
was some speed for an engine with 5-foot 10-inch driving 
wheels. 

As they passed Calhoun at fifteen miles an hour the cap- 
tain added to his crew by landing a boy telegrapher on board 
with a flying grasp of the hand. This lad had walked from 
Dalton looking for the break in the wire which the Yankees 
had cut. 

Fuller’s game now was to reach Dalton before the fugi- 
tives could cut the wire be- 
tween that station and Chat- 
tanooga. 

Two miles from Calhoun 
the crews of the rival engines 
caught sight of each other. 
Those on the quarry prompt- 
ly let loose a freight car to 
block the road. But that did 
not deter Captain Fuller long. 
He coupled it to his engine 
and from its top gave the nec- 
essary signals to the engineer. 
Then the “General” detached 
another freight car, which the 





“GENERAL” MONUMENT 
In the National Cemetery on Lookout 
captain’s enpine=as promptly Mountain, Erected by the Survivors 


of the Raid. 
coupled up. 


At Resaca, five miles from Calhoun, the captain was able 
to get rid of his two impediments and started again with an 
engine only. Two miles north of Resaca a T-rail was dis- 
covered diagonally across the track, too late to stop. Then 
the captain made the important discovery that his engine at 
fifty-five miles an hour was a steeple-chaser, for it went over 
the obstruction like a trained hurdler. At Dalton the telegraph 


158 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


boy was dropped, with orders to dispatch instantly a telegram, 
which Captain Fuller had prepared, to General Ledbetter at 
Chattanooga, informing him of the situation and warning him 
not to let the raiders pass. 


Two miles beyond Dalton the pursuers came in sight of 
the fugitives again. They had stopped to tear up the track 
and cut the wire. This last cut was just too late to catch 
the message to General Ledbetter, but it intercepted the usual 
acknowledgment. 


The race was now resumed at a hotter pace than ever, but 
with the “General” showing signs of distress. 


Half way between Ringgold and Graysville the fugitives 
abandoned the ‘‘General” and took to the woods, with the 
injunction from their leader, Andrews, that “every one take 
care of himself.” .They scattered in groups of three or four. 
Captain Fuller secured the aid of a company of mounted 
militia and began to scour the woods for the fugitives. Four 
of these were run down in the fork of the Chickamauga river — 
at Graysville. In a few days all were captured and for the 
first time it was definitely known that the raiders consisted of 
twenty-two men, two of whom, including the leader, Andrews, 
were Kentuckians and the other twenty were enlisted men 
attached to the 2d, 21st and 33d Ohio infantry. .Tried by 
court martial, eight of them, including the two from Ken- 
tucky, were executed in Atlanta as spies, six Wer e exchanged 
and eight escaped from prison at Atlanta. “Thus,” concludes 
the historian, “ended one of the most daring exploits on 
record.” ; 

The ‘story, however, does not end ‘there. The *General” 
was to see further service. It hauled a train load of ammuni- 
tion up to General Johnston’s lines in the battle of Kenesaw 
Mountain on the morning of June 27, 1864; and in the eve- 
ning brought a large number of wounded soldiers from Feath- 
erstone’s division back to Marietta. It was also the last West- 
ern & Atlantic engine to leave Atlanta with a train load of 
refugees and war material when Hood’s army evacuated 
that city. | 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 159 


The United States recognized the daring exploit of its 
soldiers by awarding medals of honor to the six men who 
were paroled as well as the eight who escaped from the At- 
lanta prison. Medals were also ordered for the nearest rela- 
tives of the men who were executed. 


The fame of this exploit is kept alive in Chattanooga by 
theppreservation of the’ “General” inside a? guard rail at the 
station, with her tender heaped with firewood as when she 
started on her unscheduled flight from Big Sandy; and high 
up in the National Cemetery on Lookout Mountain the sur- 
vivors of the raiders have erected a monument to their fallen 
comrades. The monument is surmounted by a miniature of 
the “General”, and tablets on three sides of the pedestal bear 
the names of the three parties into which the raiders were 
divided—the executed, the paroled and the escaped prisoners. 


This tale serves to illustrate one phase of railroading dur- 
ing the Civil War in which the wits, resourcefulness and 
daredevil spirit of both armies were matched with varying 
fortunes. 


mecordinge to Prof. Carl Russell Fish of the University; 
of Wisconsin, the skeleton of the Southern railway system 
had been planned with remarkable foresight and was almost. 
complete when the war broke out. It furnished transporta- 
tion for men, munitions and provender from the limits of the 
Confederacy to Lee’s army over rails five feet apart, the gauge 
being a constant impediment to the use of northern rolling 
stock. “As the northern armies threatened. to advance,” says 
Prof. Fish, “the Confederate military authorities, after run- 
ning off the rolling stock, destroyed as much of the perma- 
nent way as they knew how. They never, however, acquired 
the skill in this art of the more mechanically minded north- 
ern soldiers.” 


In his personal memoirs General Grant tells how expert 
Sherman’s men became in this work of hobbling southern 
communications. “The method adopted,” he says, “of crip- 
pling these roads was to burn and destroy all the bridges and 
culverts, and for a long distance, at places, to tear up the 


160 HISTORY -OF AMERICAN: KRATEWAYS 





track and bend the rails. Soldiers to do this rapidly would 
form a line along one side of the road with crowbars and 
poles, place these under the rails and, hoisting all at once, turn 
over many rods of road at one time. The ties would be placed 
in piles, and the rails as they were loosened would be carried 
and put across these log heaps. When a sufficient number of 
rails were placed upon a pile of ties, it would be set on fire. 
This would heat the rails very much more in the middle than 
at the ends so that they would naturally bend of their own 
weight; but the soldiers, to increase the damage, would take 
tongs and, one or two men at each end of the rail, carry it 
with force against the nearest tree and twist it around, thus 
leaving bands to ornament the forest trees of Georgia.” 


In another passage General Grant records that “like our- 
selves the rebels had become 
experts in repairing such 
damage.” Blacksmiths were 
detailed and set to work mak- 
ing the tools necessary in 
railroad and bridge building. 
Timber for bridges and fuel 
for locomotives was cut; car- 
builders were set to work re- 
pairing locomotives and cars; 
and, according to General Grant, “every brand of railway 
building, making tools to work with and supplying the work- 
men with food, was all going on at once and without the aid 
of a mechanic or laborer except what the command itself 
furnished.” 





WESTERN STAGE COACH, 1862 


Many miles of railway in the disputed territory were de- 
stroyed and rebuilt a dozen times before the final rehabilita- 
tion that followed Lee’s surrender. 


What a difference the few miles that separated the main 
lines of the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio made 
was shown in the contrast in the damage and loss suffered 
by them through the battles and raids that ravaged their com- 
mon territory. The Pennsylvania suffered little more than 


‘FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 161 


temporary annoyance by being able to withdraw rolling stock 
and other property from threatened ‘regions. This was no- 
ticeably so during the Gettysburg campaign, when General 
Lee’s army penetrated to the neighborhood of Harrisburg. 
Such effective precautions were undertaken that the general 
superintendent was able to report that “the whole property 
of the company escaped untouched and unharmed and it was 
enabled, as soon as the danger was removed, to resume its 
operations in full, and with very little delay.” 

The experience of the Bal- 
timore & Ohio was far differ- 
ertee ine Gontedérate forces 
in May, 1861, took possession 
of more than one hundred 
miles of the main line, most- 
ly between the Point of Rocks = 
and Cumberland; and by oc- “C. P. HUNTINGTON” BUILT BY 


- : DANFORTH, COOKE & CO. 
casional raids caused great Shipped Around the Horn, Went Into 


destruction on the roads be- Central Pacific Service About 1864 

tween Cumberland and Wheeling and from Grafton to Park- 
ersburg. Locomotives, cars and machinery were carried off 
and “transported by animal power” over turnpikes to south- 
ern railways. In Virginia portions of the Orange & Alex- 
andria and sections of the Virginian and of the Petersburg & 
Richmond roads were subjected to destruction and reconstruc- 
tion by the alternating raids and retreats of the Union cavalry. 





The Passing of the Canal 


How the scepter of transportation was passing from the 
waterway to the railway during the decade is sharply illus- 
trated in the following record of tonnage moved in the years 
1860 and 1870: 

Tons Moved Tons Moved 


1860 1870 
Piricweisiat here ee. oi, ta ikea soe PAG nee 3,083,132 
PLPC AMIGO AG AS, Uitce oobi nixed ioe 1,139,554 4,852,505 
N. Y. Cent’] & Hudson River R.R..1,028,183 4,122,000 


So fifty years ago there could be no mistaking the hand- 
writing on the wall. The artificial waterway had been tried 


162 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





and been given a long start, but was found wanting in the 
elements of speed and flexibility to answer the transportation 
needs of this continent. 3 

In March, 1865, it took Judge Munson, an appointee of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, fifty days to complete the trip from St. Louis to 
Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation, 2,000 miles by 
river on the crack boat of the river. The sinuous windings of the 





PERILS OF OVERLAND TRAVEL IN THE ’60s 
From an Old Drawing 


Missouri accounted for doubling the distance as now made by 
rail in less than 48 hours. 

The high cost of steel rails greatly retarded their intro- 
duction on American railways, but the invention of the Besse- 
mer process brought them within the resources of our stronger 
roads, whose officials were quick to see the economy of a 
rail that cost only twice as much as the best iron rail and 
lasted eight times as long. 

The first steel rails rolled in America were rolled at the 
Chicago Rolling Mill on May 25, 1865. The total production 
by 1867 was only 2,277 tons; by 1870 it had risen to 30,357 
and the price had dropped from $166.00 per ton to $106.75 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 163 





and before the end of the next decade it had fallen to $48.25. 
At first the duty on Bessemer rails was 45 per cent ad va- 
lorem, which was gradually reduced until, in 1883, it was 
$17 per ton and the price of rails went below $40 a ton. 


Steam Speed in the Sixties 


Appleton’s Railway Guide for October, 1862, gives an au- 
thentic picture of the passenger facilities of the railways dur- 














FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN IN THE FAR WEST 
—From a Rare Print in the Possession of Judge Lyman E. Munson 


‘ing the second year of the War for the Union. These, then 
as now, were judged by the standard attained on the New 
York and Chicago run. 

There was no through service between the two cities in 
1862. The Central Railway of New Jersey advertised the 
shortest line to the West—“Time from New York to Chicago 
36 hours—three hours less than Northern Lines.” To make 
good its boast, the Central ran an express train from Jersey 
City to Pittsburgh “without change” over its own rails to 
Easton; Lehigh Valley to Allentown; East Pennsylvania Ry., 


164 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





to Reading; Lebanon Valley R. R. to Harrisburg, and 
Pennsylvania Central to Pittsburgh, in 16 hours and 5 min- 
utes. At Pittsburgh the traveler took the Pittsburgh, Fort 
Wayne & Chicago Ry., composed of that line, the Ohio & 
Pennsylvania and the Ohio & Indiana, to Chicago—46/ miles. 
This route had an aggregate distance of 898 miles, or 10 
miles shorter than what is now the Pennsylvania line between 
New York and Chicago. 











INDICATOR: 


Entered aceording to Act of Congress, inthe year 1862, by G. £. Thomas, in the Clerics Office of theDist.Court 
of the United States for the Southern District of DewYork. 









HOW_ THEY SET THEIR WATCHES IN 1862, BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION 
OF STANDARD TIME 


In Appleton’s Guide the Pennsylvania road as we know 
it today was listed under the title of the Pennsylvania Cen- 
tral Ry., with J. Edgar Thomson president. Its entrance to 
New York was effected over the New Jersey Railway to Jer- 
sey City and also by the Camden & Amboy Ry., which had a 
steam ferry connection at one end and a steamboat ride of 
27 miles at the other. If the time tables of 1862 can be relied 
on, the journey from New York to Chicago via Philadelphia 
could be made in 33 hours against 20 hours in 1924. 

In 1862 the great New York Central System had no Hud- 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 165 


son River attached to its title and its time tables began with 
Troy and Albany and ended at Buffalo. At that point its 
trains connected “with the Lake Shore Railway to Erie, Cleve- 
land, Sandusky, Toledo and thence to Chicago by Michigan 
Southern Railway.” The distance between Chicago and Albany 
over this combination was 836 miles, to which has to be added 
the 144 miles from East Albany, reached by ferry via the Hud- 
son River Railway to New York, making a total of 980 miles, 
which is practically identical with the distance today, if Buf- 
falo is visited en route. The journey with all connections 
consumed between 38 and 39 hours, which may be compared 
with the New York Central’s Twentieth Century train which 
makes the run in 20 hours. 


In these time tables of 1862 scrupulous attention is paid 
to the difference in time between stations, the New York 
Central note reading: “Standard of Time Clock in Depot at 
mibany, which 18°21) minutes faster than Buffalo. time >On 
the New York & Harlem Railway, which started at the City 
Hall with stops at White and Center streets, 26th, 42d and 
Yorkville before it reached Harlem, the standard of time was 
the “Clock in Superintendent’s Office, 26th Street, New York.”’ 
Frequent reference was made to the “Time Indicator” illus- 
trated above. 


An interesting feature of the reading matter accompany- 
ing the time table of the Hudson River Railway, which left 
from the corner of Chambers Street and College Place, was 
the claim that “Trains of this road run with an expedition, 
despatch and regularity not surpassed by any other in the 
country.” But even more interesting, as showing the primi- 
tive measures taken to secure “the almost entire exception 
from accidents and collisions” claimed by the management, 
is the following statement: “One characteristic of this road 
deserves especial mention. We refer to the system of signal 
flags introduced to secure safety from accidents in running 
the trains. Flagmen are stationed upon every mile of the road 
(italics are the Guide’s), generally at the curves, or upon a 
slight acclivity, where a view of the track from some dis- 


166 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





tance can be had. Upon the approach of a train, if all is 
clear ahead, the flagman displays a white signal. If there 
be any obstruction in sight, or a diminished speed is required, 
a red flag is displayed.” 


Building of the Union Pacific 


Out of the throes of the Civil War, but in the fullness of 
time, came the great national undertaking known as the Union 
Pacific Railroad. What Washington, with the eye of a seer 
and a pioneer surveyor, foresaw as necessary for the survival 
of the new Nation—uninterrupted communication for the 
widely separated parts of the republic—Abraham Lincoln put 

in the way of actual accom- 

Mba lishment when, on Novem- 

Apceucter t”"Uety, ae 4, 1864, he certified his 

de locaZon approval of the first hundred 
of: Ze te lib miles west from Omaha, Ne- 
Toad gfor- tree Yulee — bhraska, as the permanent lo- 
weet yr 7 -cation of the, Unions bactin 


Se sgh df He refs Parcep That was the “All aboard” 
g of Siac OLG for the vast enterprise which 
| | Yi , ey, for a full generation had been 
simmering in the minds of 

M re hemsdeucate 


) Americans who had visions 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S APPROVAL . | 
OF THE LOCATION OF THE of a-great continental rail- 


UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD 
way. How nearly one of the 
earliest suggestions for this road came to hitting on the exact 
route finally chosen may be judged by the following extract 
from an article in the Emigrant, 2 weekly newspaper pub- 
lished in Ann Arbor, in the Territory (!) of Michigan, Febru- 
ary 6, 1832, under the title “Something New:” 


“The distance between New York and the Oregon is 
about three thousand miles,—from New York we could 
pursue the most convenient route to the vicinity of Lake 
Erie, thence along the South Shore of this lake and of 
Lake Michigan, cross the Mississippi between 41 degrees 
and 42 degrees of north latitude, cross the Missouri about ~ 
the mouth of the Platte, and thence on by the most con- 
venient route to the Rocky Mountains, near the source of 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 167 





the last named river, thence to the Oregon, by tthe valley 
of the south branch of that stream called the southern 
branch of Lewis’ river.” 


The only variance of this route from that finally adopted, 
which was to reach San Fran- 
cisco, was that it branched off 
bymtnewOresons short.) Line 
route to Oregon and Port- 
land. 

From this time on projects 
to span the continent with 
Gileeor more, 1rone bands. mul- 








EW OmULICLMELOMnemOtialy tars Fy eke ke cee en Gentry pin 
thered by Asa Whitney in pUNERAL TRAIN TO SPRING. © 
favor of building a railway ae 

from the Mississippi below the Falls of St. Anthony to the 
Pacific ocean, under the direction of the secretary of war, . 
was introduced into Congress successively in 1845, 1846 and 
1847. Whitney proposed to build his road from the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific coast for a grant of land 30 miles in width 
along its track. Bills in favor of the Whitney project were 








FROM A PRINT OF THE PERIOD 
(About 1865) 


16gce HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





introduced at both sessions of the 30th Congress, but were 
defeated through the opposition of Senator Benton, who had 
his own scheme for a “Na- 
tional Central Highway” with 
St. Louis as its eastern gate- 
way. Benton’s proposal got 
no farther, but it started the 
war over the eastern termi- 
nus of the Pacific railway, 
and that was enough to keep 
all similar projects hanging 
in the sectional air then thick 
in Congress, which was to be 
dispelled only by the flames 
of civil war. 

Whitney spent his entire 
fortune in the attempt to re- 
alize his vision of a Pacific 
railway, and ended his life 
selling milk from his own 
dairy in Washington, D. C. 
His project, along with 





GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE, 


1831-1916 others with different initial 
Veteran of the Civil War: Chief Engi- : 
neer of the Union Pacific 1866-70 points, was allowed to slum- 


and of The Texas Pacific 1871-81 ber for the next ten years 
> 


until the overwhelming sentiment of the country demanded 
action for the preservation of our national existence. 
Throughout this period (1849 to 1859) there were five routes 
before Congress, as follows: | 

(1) By the 47th and 49th parallels, or the Northern route; 
(2) by the 41st and 42d parallels, the “Overland,” “Central” 
or “Mormon” route; (3) by the 38th and 39th parallels, or the 
Buffalo trail; (4) by the 35th parallel; and (5) by the 32d 
parallel, or Southern route. 

Both political parties declared in favor of a Pacific rail- 
way, but no majority could be brought to unite on the route. 
President Buchanan commended the subject to the “friendly 
consideration” of the 35th Congress (1857-1859) “without 


FOURTH \DECADE, 1860-1870 169 


finally committing himself to any particular route.’ That was 
the rub that held this mighty essential enterprise in pause 
through those critical years. Northern capital alone could 
build the line and Northern capital could only be obtained for 











ENGINE “FALCON” ON INSPECTION OF CENTRAL PACIFIC BEFORE 
DRIVING OF THE GOLD SPIKE AT PROMONTORY 


Note—Federal Railroad Commissioners Clements and Blinkendoffer in Wraps on 
the Cowcatcher 


—Photograph Taken Feb. 9, 1869, Courtesy 
of Mrs. O. C. Waldau, Daughter of W. B. 
. Kendale, the Conductor, Shown with Orders 

in His Hand 
a Northern route. Southern representatives realized this, and 
so the building of any Pacific railway depending on Federal 
action and assistance remained an impossibility until after 
the firing on Sumter, when the North undertook to legislate 


for the Nation. 


With the secession of eleven Southern states, the rivalry 
of the five sectional routes was reduced to three—the St. Louis 
interest, the Chicago interest and the Northern interest. In 
the end the Chicago interest, backed by the wealth and energy 
_of New England and New York, prevailed. By 1860 the Chi- 
cago interest had reached the Mississippi at Dubuque, Rock 


170 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Island and Burlington, from which points respectively the 
Chicago & North Western, Rock Island and Burlington lines 
were pushing on across Iowa 
to Sioux City, Council Bluffs 
and Platte City, as rapidly as 
their resources would permit. 

Well nigh a year was con- 
sumed in perfecting the Act, 
which finally received Lin- 
coln’s approval on July 1, 
18625 lt screateditamecommocd. 
tion. to be known. as "The 
Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany,” to be composed of 158 
persons named “in thes Act, 
“together with five Commis- 
sioners to be appointed by the 
Secretary of the Interior=ine 





TABLET IN THE CHICAGO & NORTH- 


WESTERN CHICAGO STATION | capital stock was to con- 
To Commemorate the Establishment of : 
the First Railway Postal Car Service sist of one hundred thousand 


Bi diatghons eee ea shares of one thousand dol- 


lars each, of which not more than two hundred shares were 
to be held by one person.” The route named in the Act was 
to be from a point to be fixed by the President of the United 
States on the 100th meridian of longitude west. from Green- 
wich * * * thence running westerly upon the most direct, 
central and practicable route through the territories of the 
United States to the western boundary of the Territory of 
Nevada, there to meet and connect with the line of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad Company of California.” The grades 
and curves were not to exceed those of the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad, and the line was required to be completed by 
July 1, 1874. 


The right of way through public lands 200 feet on each 
side of the track was granted. Mineral lands were exempted 
from the grant and the right of way was limited to 100 feet 
on each side of the track through private property. Further 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 171 





LOCOMOTIVE “CONNESS” ON TRESTLE OVER AMERICAN RIVER 
MARCH 16, 1865 


Built by the Mason Locomotive Works, Mass. in 1864 and Shipped Around €ape Horn 


aid in the form of United States 30-year 6 per cent bonds not 
to exceed $50,000,000 were to be issued to the company as the 
work progressed, such bonds to be paid by it at maturity. 
This aid was attended with conditions of the most exacting 
nature. 

Like terms and conditions accompanied the grants to the 





A BALDWIN FLEXIBLE BEAM TRUCK LOCOMOTIVE 


Introduced in 1842 
Remodelled in 1865 


LAZ HISTORY ~OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Central Pacific and it was provided that if either road reached 
the California boundary before the other it could proceed to 
a meeting with the other. It was this provision that spurred 
on the race until the two companies met head-on at Promon- 
tory Point, north of Salt Lake, on May 10, 1869. 

The Act of 1862 provided that the gauge of the road should 
be determined by the president, a responsibility Mr. Lincoln 
did not relish. After much discussion, he named 5 feet, which 





PORTLAND, OREGON IN 1867 


conformed to the California gauge. Then the New ‘York- 
Chicago-lowa combination got busy and secured the passage 
through Congress of an Act declaring “that the gauge of the 
Pacific Railroad and its branches throughout the whole extent, 
from the Pacific coast to the Missouri river, shall be, and 
hereby is, established at four feet, eight and one-half inches.” 

That not only fixed the gauge for the Pacific roads but 
settled officially 4 feet 8% inches as the standard gauge for 
_the railways of the United States, as it is today. 


Omaha Without Railways in 1863 


“In 1863,” says the historian of that road, “when the act 
authorizing the Union Pacific was passed by Congress, no 
single iron rail or railroad tie had ever so much as been seen 
at Omaha. The end of the nearest railroad building westward 
from Chicago across Iowa was still 200 miles distant. One 
frail railroad had recently reached the Missouri River at St. 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 173 





Joseph, Missouri, 150 miles distant, over which there was un- 
certain navigation and that during but four months of 
the year. E 

“Westward for 2,000 miles stretched that vast Indian in- 
fested tract of desert and mountain from the Missouri River 
to the Pacific Ocean—sun parched in summer and blizzard 
swept in winter.” 

In the geographies of those days this inhospitable region 
was named the “Great American Desert” and the trails across 
it were marked with headstones instead of milestones. 

Private capitalists balked at the inducements to invest 
their funds under the Act of 1862, and it was not until Con- 
' gress practically doubled these inducements, in 1864, that 
construction was actually begun, and by September, 1865, the 
first eleven miles of the Union Pacific were completed. There- 
after the race between the rival Pacifics was on, the Central 
Pacific having a full year advantage at the start. When they 
met at Promontory Point, in 1869, the Union Pacific had 
built 1,086 miles from Omaha and the Central Pacific 689 from 
Sacramento. 3 

The natural obstacles of mountain and desert made the 
work exceptionally difficult, dangerous and expensive. The 
Central Pacific had the advantage of getting its iron, finished 
supplies and machinery by sea, via Cape Horn or Panama, 
and also of obtaining coolie labor from China, while the Union 
Pacific having no railway connection until January, 1867, had 
to get all its supplies overland from the unfinished railways 
in Iowa or by Missouri river steamboats. It had also to de- 
pend on intractable Irish labor until it was able to recruit 
more stable forces from the discharged soldiers of the army. 
Instead of the unified management the Central Pacific enjoyed 
through a single construction company, the Union Pacific 
was harassed by the warring factions of the Credit Mobilier. 
In the closing days of this great work the two companies 
employed at least 25,000 men, about equally divided between 
them. 

Another great advantage enjoyed by the Central Pacific 
was that the Sierra Nevada furnished all the timber needed 


174 HISTORY> OR AMERICANGHAILIVASS 


for ties, trestles and snow-sheds, whereas the Union Pacific 
had scarcely any timber along its line, except the worthless 
cottonwood of the Platte valley. Both roads were built 
through a new, uninhabited and uncultivated country and 
had to set up their own foundries and machine shops as the 
work progressed. 

This unique, difficult and dangerous example of American 
railway building was admirably described in a paper read 
before the Society of the Army of the Tennessee by General 
G. M. Dodge, chief engineer 
of the Union Pacific during 
construction. 

The work was semi-military 
in its character. The survey- 
ing parties were always ac- 
companied by a detachment 
of soldiers as a protection 
against interference by In- 
dians. The construction trains 
-were fully equipped with ri- 
fles- ands othersarms,> and it 
was claimed that a gang of 
tracklayers could be _ trans- 











COLLISD Pa WLUNTINGION,. 1821-1900 


Railway Organizer and Builder formed at. an momen into 
“When peo sung £0 erty Wood He ‘eit ek: - ‘ ent - 

icked up Chips” a battalion 1 tv. = 

From a Steel Engrawng of the ’70s O niant y) Ss 





ENGINE AND CREW IN CHARGE OF TRANSFER AT PROMONTORY, TAKEN 
AT THE LAYING OF THE LAST RAIL MAY 10; 1869 
—Courtesy W. L. Park 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 175 





saults on the trains by the Indians were not infrequent. 
“There was nothing we could ask of the United States 
army,’ wrote General Dodge, “that they did not give, even 
when the regulations did not authorize it, and it took a long 
stretch of authority to satisfy 
all our demands. The com- 
missary department was open 
to us. Their troops guarded 
us, and we reconnoitred, sur- 
veyed, located and built in- 
side of their picket line. We 
marched to work to the tap 
of the drum with our men 
pe daer hile ye Stacked) tieir 
arms on the dump and were 
ready at a moment’s warning 
toctallsin-and fight for their 
territory. General Casement’s 
track train could arm a thou- 
Sande men at a word: and; 
from him as a head down to 





his chief spiker, it could be COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON 
é From a Photograph Taken Shortly Be- 
commanded by experienced fore His Death in 1900 


officers of every rank from general to a captain. They had 
served five years at the front, and over half of the men had. 
shouldered a musket in many battles. An illustration of this 
came to me after our track had passed Plum Creek, 200 miles 
west of the Missouri River. The Indians had captured a 
freight train and were in possession of it and its crews. It 
so happened that I was coming down from the front with my 
car, which was a traveling arsenal. At Plum Creek station, 
word came of this capture and stopped us. On my train 
were perhaps twenty men, some a portion of the crew, some 
who had been discharged and sought passage to the rear. 
Nearly all were strangers to me. The excitement of the cap- 
ture and the reports coming by telegraph of the burning train 
brought all the men to the platform, and when I called on 
them to fall in to go forward and retake the train, every man 


176 HISTORY “OF SAM ERICAN® RAILWAYS 





on the train went into line, and by his position showed that 
he was a soldier. We ran down slowly until we came in 
sight of the train. I gave the order to deploy as skirmishers, 
and at the command they went forward as steadily and in as 
good order as we had seen the old soldiers climb the face of 
Kenesaw.” 





PORTLAND, OREGON, OCT. 5, 1924 
Mount Hood Shows in Snow Clad Distance 
—Copyrighted by A. M. Prentiss, Portiane 


Here is a description from the Fortnightly Review of an- 
other phase of the building of the great national railway: 

“Track laying on the Union Pacific is a science, and we 
pundits of the far East stood upon that embankment, only 
about a thousand miles this side of sunset, and backed west- 
ward before the hurrying corps of sturdy operators with a 
mingled feeling of amusement, curiosity and profound respect. 
On they came. A light car drawn by a single horse gallops 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 177 


up to the front with a load of rails. Two men seize the end 
of a rail and start forward, the rest of the gang taking hold 
by twos, until it is clear of the car. They come forward at 
a run. At the word of command the rail is dropped in its 
place, right side up with care, while the same process goes 
on at the other side of the car. Less than thirty seconds to 
a rail for each gang, and so four rails go down to a minute! 
Quick work, you say, but the fellows on the Union Pacific 
are tremendously in earnest. The moment the car is empty 
it is tipped over on the side of the track to let the next loaded 
car pass it, and then it is tipped back again, and it is a sight 
to see it go flying back for another load propelled by a horse 
at full gallop at the end of sixty or eighty feet of rope, ridden 
by a young Jehu, who drives furiously. Close behind the 
first gang come the gaugers, spikers and bolters, and a lively 
time they make of it. It is a grand Anvil Chorus that these 
sturdy sledges are playing across the plains. It is in triple 
time, three strokes to a spike. There are ten spikes to a rail, 
four hundred rails to a mile, eighteen hundred miles to San 
Francisco. * ™* * Twenty-one million times are those 
sledges to be swung—twenty-one million times are they to 
come down with their sharp punctuation, before the great 
work of modern America is to be completed.” 


Now, gentle reader, let us take a trip over the Union 
Pacific during its construction days, boarding the train at 
Omaha, with the eyes and pen of J. H. Beadle, correspondent 
of the Cincinnati Commercial. He bore a letter of identifica- 
tion from Murat Halstead, the famous war correspondent and 
editor of that once influential newspaper. The start was made 
at 6 P. M. July 3, 1868. The road at first ran through a well 
settled and cultivated country for fifty miles. 


“Next morning our eyes rested on an expanse of distance— 
without life, vast plains, rolling hills, and the mighty Platte 
six inches deep and two miles wide; ‘too thin to walk on, too 
thick to drink, too shallow for navigation, too deep for safe 
fording, too yellow to wash in, too pale to paint with—the 
most disappointing and least useful river in America‘.” And 


178 HISTORY OF (AMERIGAN RAILWAYS 


—_— 








yet the imperceptible ascent of the valley of the Platte made 
the rapid building of the Union Pacific possible. 

“Out of North Platte, 291 miles from Omaha, where we 
breakfasted, we move out over a dry plain following the South 
Platte. For over a mile the train moves through a settlement 
of prairie dogs called a ‘Dog Town,’ occasionally we see a 
group of Indians looking on from distant sandhills, and are 
kept alert by the usual rumors of trains held up and plundered 
by dusky warriors, just ahead of ours, but pass safely on. 

“For four hundred miles the eating stations are the only 
towns we see. Late in the day we reach Cheyenne, only six 
months ago the ‘great city of the plains, full of boisterous 
life and sudden death, with a population of six thousand peo- 
ple, which at this date (July, 1868) had shrunk to a quiet 
and moral town of perhaps fifteen hundred inhabitants. 

“From Cheyenne a practically level road takes us rapidly 
to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, from which the 
rise is steep and rugged up to Sherman, the highest point on 
the road. Then down the western slope to Laramie, and so 
on to what was then known as Benton, a short distance be- 
yond the present town of Rawlins.’ To the correspondent of 
the Commercial in 1868 “it was a typical railway town of 
mushroom growth with three thousand inhabitants, laid out 
in a rectangular square, five wards, a city government of 
mayor and aldermen and all the paraphernalia of a permanent 
community. 

“This, for the time being, was the terminus of construction 
six hundred and ninety-eight miles~ from Omaha. From it 
nota‘ ereen tree) shrub-orispear of grass was to be seen. 50 
far as Mr. Beadle’s eyes could reach, “the red hills appeared 
scorched and bare as if blasted by the lightnings of an angry 
God. * * * All seemed sacred to the genius of drought 
and desolation.” 

Benton was the end of freight and passenger traffic and 
the beginning of the construction division. Here twice daily 
immense trains arrived and departed. All goods formerly 
hauled across the plains came here and were reshipped. ‘For 
ten hours daily,” says the correspondent, “the streets were 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 179 





thronged with motley crowds of railroad men, Mexicans and 
Indians, gamblers, ‘cappers’ and saloon keepers, merchants, - 
miners and mulewhackers.” 

The great institution of Benton was the “Big Tent,” a 
structure 100 feet long by 40 feet wide, with a good floor for 
dancing and many tables for gambling, with every device 
known to frontier life, from three-card monte down to “rondo- 
coolo,” said to be the least “cutthroat” of these sports. This 
“Big Tent’ was a peripatetic institution that was set up at 





WHERE THE UNION PACIFIC AND CENTRAL PACIFIC MET AT 
PROMONTORY, UTAH, in ’69 


each successive terminus that marked the advance of the Union 
Pacific. 

On the 10th of May, 1869, Mr. Beadle witnessed the cere- 
monies connected with laying the last rail and driving the last 
spike on the Pacific Railway at Promontory Point, north of 
Great Salt Lake. There he wrote: “Irish and Chinese labor- 
ers met in their great work to place the last bit in the band 
which weds the Orient and Occident.” 

It was there the American railways completed the work 
of binding this Republic in an indissoluble union, to which 
they contributed so greatly during the decade 1860-1870. 

With the three strokes that drove the last spike, the telegraph 
in every city in the Union clicked off: “ONE, TWO, THREE 
(pause), DONE 


180 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





The Credit Mobilier Scandal 


Unfortunately the completion of the Union Pacific cannot 
be dismissed with its junction with the Central Pacific at 
Promontory Point. While its inception, promotion and com- 
pletion in the face of political, physical and financial obsta- 
cles was a signal triumph of the American spirit that rises 
to meet emergencies, there were features about its actual 





SAME SCENE FROM A PRINT OF THE PERIOD 


When Artists Disagree, You Can Take Your Choice. The Camera Was Not as 
Ubiquitous in 1869 as It is Now 


financing and construction that have always detracted from 
the public’s pride in this essentially national achievement. 
Although time and the fulfillment of all its obligations to the 
Government, with receiverships and consequent reorganiza- 
tions, have cleared the title of the Union Pacific from the 
last shadow of the Credit Mobilier, no history of railways in 
America can ignore it as a passing and past phase of railway 
construction on this continent. 

The story is a long and somewhat intricate one, which 
may be boiled down to. the statement that the construction 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 181 


_ of the Union Pacific was let out through the intervention of 
seven trustees to the Credit Mobilier, a company that had 
taken over the charter rights of the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agen- 
cy—which included powers of the most elastic nature, with 
a limitation of liability of its shareholders to the amount of 
stock subscribed. The African in this seemingly legitimate 
business transaction was the duplication of the stockholders 
in the two companies. The seven trustees were to do the 
work and, as fast as the miles of road built entitled the Union 
Pacific to receive the pro rata of Government subsidy bonds, 
first mortgage bonds, land grant bonds and other securities, 
these were paid over to the trustees, who, after reimbursing 
themselves for the cost to date, turned the balance over to the 
Credit Mobilier to be distributed among its stockholders. 

Testimony before a Senate committee was to the effect 
that the Union Pacific paid the contractors securities of the 
face value of $93,546,287; that the work cost the contractors 
$50,/20,959, leaving a balance of $42,825,328 for the Credit 
Mobilier. But as the bonds and stocks were put in at par, 
where they were disposed of at a heavy discount, the profit 
on this questionable transaction was reduced to $23,366,319. 
It was not this profit, enormous as it was, that outraged 
public sentiment, which was familiar with the “lucky strikes” 
of railway contractors who took the risks of difficult enter- 
prises, but the exposure of a distribution of Credit Mobilier 
stock “where it would do the most good” in Congress created 
a political sensation such as has seldom been known in Amer- 
ica. The list of those to whom stock had been “sold” in- 
cluded the names of Vice-President Colfax, Vice-President- 
Blect Wilson, Speaker of the House Blaine, Senator Pat- 
terson and Representatives Oakes Ames, Dawes, Schofield, 
Garfield, Boutwell, Bingham and Kelley. 

When Congress began its session in the following Decem- 
ber, 1872, Speaker Blaine called Sunset'-S. Cox to the chair 
and introduced a resolution calling for an investigation under 
which what is known as the Poland Committee was appointed. 
In January following, the Wilson Committee for the same 
purpose was appointed in the Senate. 


182 HiSlORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


After six weeks of almost daily sessions the Poland Com- 
“mittee reported, and its report was referred to the Committee 
on Judiciary. This committee reported against impeachment 
because none of the acts complained of had been done by an 
officer of the House who was such both when the crime was 
committed and when it was investigated. Its findings on the 
relation of Representative Oakes Ames to the scandal, which 
contain the gist of the matter, were as follows: 


“Oakes Ames, for the purpose of creating in members of 
Congress a ieeling favorable to the Union Pacincem and 
Credit Mobilier) had sold or agreed to sell to them stock in 
the Credit Mobilier at par when it was worth much more, but 
instead of having the stock transferred to purchasers on the 
books of the company, had kept it in his own name as ‘trustee,’ 
had received the dividends and accounted for them to the 
purchasers. His purpose was not to secure positive beneficial 
legislation, but to prevent possible detrimental legislation, 
particularly legislative regulation of freight and passenger 
rates on the Union Pacific as advocated by C. C. Washburn 
(Wis.) and, Ev. B. Washburnéd* (it.)jy (iis acts* were wiane 
mount to bribery—in the opinion of the committee.” 


The Poland Committee thereupon recommended the ex- 
pulsion of Representatives Ames and Brooks (who as a Gov- 
ernment director and Congressman had used his position to 
procure stock in companies directly dependent upon Congres- 
sional legislation). The House contented itself with ,“abso- 
lutely condemning the conduct” of Oakes Ames. Within a 
few months of their condemnation both representatives died— 
the former’s death, on May 8, 1873, being attributed to his 
immense exertions in building the Union Pacific and the ex- 
citement and disgrace of the Credit Mobilier scandal. 

In the Senate a select committee appointed to consider 
‘the evidence taken by the Poland Committee reported in favor 
of the expulsion of Senator Patterson, but his term expired 
before the report was acted on. : 

The Wilson Committee of the Senate reported a bill for 
the recovery of the excessive -profits of the Credit Mobilier for 








FOURTH WLCADE, 1860-1870 183 


the benefit of the United States. Suit was accordingly brought 
in the District Court for the District of Connecticut, but on 
demurrer both the District Court and the Supreme Court 
on appeal found that the Government had no cause of action. 
The grounds for this decision, as stated by Justice Hunt of 
the District Court, are not open to question. In part, he said: 
“So long as the security of the United States for its loan of 
bonds and land should not be impaired, and as long as the 
corporation should perform the public functions imposed upon 
it by its charter, the United States could not maintain an 
action for recovery from the Union Pacific of money or other 
properly, even fraudulently or unlawfully taken from the cor- 
Rotor ee oe in sectring the. benefits sexpected irom 
a Pacific railway, the government had given no more than it 
agreed to give, and the corporation had done and was doing 
all that the law required.” 

In afhfrming the decision, Justice Miller of the Supreme 
Court said: “It is difficult to see any right which as a credi- 
tor the Government had to interfere between the corporation 
and those with whom it deals. It has been careful to protect 
its interests in making the contract, and it has the right which 
that contract gives. What more does it ask?” 

In the end the so-called improvident grants made by Con- 
gress to the Pacific railways did not turn out so badly. The 
bread it cast on the arid waters (plains and mountains) re- 
turned to it after many years. The grant of land to the Union 
Pacific netted the company approximately $23,000,000, but 
added more than that to the value of the alternate sections 
not granted. The last of the Government bonds issued to 
the company were finally redeemed with interest. 

Summing up the history of the Union Pacific in another 
connection, the writer said: “Justice in the public mind 
has never been done—probably never will be—to the courage, 
enterprise and indomitable energy of the Americans who 
pushed the great work through financial shoals and physical 
obstructions to completion. It and the Central Pacific, as 
well, were built at war prices. Labor was scarce and was to 
be had only at exorbitant figures. The cost of materials was 


184 HIS PORY~ OF “AMERICAN *hxAILiVAy ss 


well-nigh prohibitive. The price of ties laid down at Omaha 
ran as high as $2.50. The rails for the first 100 miles of the 
Union Pacific cost $135 per ton. When railway connection 
was established between Council Bluffs and the East, this 
was reduced to $97.50. Government bonds were issued as the 
work progressed, and netted the company only 65 cents on 
the dollar. The country through which it was built was the 
hunting ground of the most warlike Indians of the West. 





THE FIRST ENGINE TO REACH ST; PAUL BY BOAT IN 1860 AND 
GREAT NORTHERN GIANT. OF 1924. 


They harassed the work at every stage, from scalping survey- 
ing parties to attacks on graders, who worked with their guns 
stacked within easy reach. It is related that more than half 
the construction gangs were men who had been through the 
war, which experience stood them in good stead. 

“The conception of this work was an inspiration of patri- 
otism; its financing was a nightmare; its physical construc- 
tion was a battle between civilization and the forces of sav- 
agery and Nature, worthy the pen of Fenimore Cooper; its 
progress was a Titanic race for subsidies and its completion 
was hailed with patriotic acclaim throughout the Union. Presi- 
dent Lincoln designated the eastern terminus of this trans- 
continental railway on March 7, 1864, and on May 10, 1869, 
President Grant received the tidings that the last spike—a 
golden one from California—had been driven that joined the 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 185 





_ rails of the Union and Central Pacific railways at Promon- 
tory, Utah.” That event was celebrated in a poem by Bret 
Harte, beginning: 

What was it the engines said, 

Pilots touching head to head, 

Facing on the single track 

Half a world behind each back? 

And what was this great work whose completion marked 
the meeting of the iron girdle across a continent, with half a 
world behind each pilot? It was a hastily graded, unbal- 
lasted, indifferently equipped, single track road of 1,921 miles, 
laid with 56-pound iron rails, through sparsely settled deserts 
and mountains, which, paradoxical as it may seem, cost three 
times as much as it was worth and yet was worth many times 
more than three times as much as it cost. 


The Union Pacific of 1923 has more miles of yard track and 
sidings than the Union Pacific of 1870 had miles of main line. 


The decade of 1860-1870, that opened with the terrific 
struggle to destroy the Union, closed with the completion 
of the first of the many transcontinental railways that all 
Americans fervently hope will make that Union forever indis- 
soluble. There were other events in the railway world that 
made this decade memorable in American history—the cross- 
ing of Lowa by no less than five great trunk lines, the Chicago 
& North Western, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy and the Illinois Central, which all arrived at the Mis- 
souri before the close of 1870. At that time there were 52,922 
miles of main line in the United States, an increase of 22,296, 
no less than 15,242 miles of which were constructed in what 
twenty years before was truly the Wild West, so far as rail- 
ways were concerned. In this decade, moreover, nine states— 
- Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, the Dakotas, 
Oregon and Utah—heard the sound of a locomotive whistle 
fottnelirst atime. sin) factaiimajority, of theseastates, were 
still in the chrysalis or territorial stage when the decade 
closed. Illinois had established its leadership of the states 


186 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








for railway mileage, with 4,823 miles of line to Pennsylvania’s 
4.656, which it was not to relinquish until 1910, when Texas 
was to overtop them both. 


Genesis of Three Western Roads 


The story of how three leading western systems were 
assembled from detached parts into great through lines to 
connect Chicago with the Pacific roads is worth telling as 
illustrative of the part consolidations have played in furnish- 
ing this continent with the essential links in its transporta- 
tion system. Take, for instance, the Chicago & North West- 
ern, which was the first of the three to reach the goal at Coun- 
cil Bluffs: What may be considered as its main stem started 
out from Chicago as the Galena & Chicago Union. Originally 
chartered, in 1836, to build a railway across the prairies 
toward the Mississippi, the enterprise was caught in the finan- 
cial panic of 1837 and actual construction was not undertaken 
until 1847. Eight years later it reached the Father of Waters. 
In 1859 the Chicago & North Western was formed as the 
successor to the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac, itself a 
consolidation of the two roads chartered in Illinois and Wis- 
consin as far back as 1851. With the consolidation of these 
several properties in 1864 and the acquisition by lease of the 
Cedar Rapids & Missouri, the Chicago & North Western was 
pushed on to the Missouri in time to assist in the final rush 
of the Union Pacific on to Ogden. Before the final merger 
of the integral parts of the system as developed into the mod- 
ern Chicago & North Western, more than a score of distinct 
organizations were absorbed and dissolved. 

Here again in the evolution of the Chicago & North West- 
ern, as was so generally the case in the history of railway 
construction on this continent, sooner or later, one man played 
an almost decisive part in the direction of its affairs. In this 
case William B. Ogden was the man. Born in 1805, he was 
barely thirty years old when he came west and settled in 
Chicago, just in time to be elected its first mayor on the city’s 
organization, in 1837. When the project of building the 
Galena & Chicago Union line, after slumbering eleven years, 


FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870 187 








was revived, in 1847, Mr. Ogden was chosen for its first presi- 
dent; then he was successively first president of the Chicago, 
Fond, du Lac Railway in 1855, of the Chicago & North West- 
ern in 1859 and of the Union Pacific in 1862. He was also a 
director in the Fort Wayne Railway at its organization, and 
from 1835 to the time of his death, in 1877, he was easily the 
most prominent single figure in Chicago and was justly called 
“the father of transportation systems” of 
what was then the Northwest. 


With a purchase of a majority of its stock 
in 1882 the Chicago & North Western ac- 
quired control of the Chicago, St. Paul, Min- 
neapolis & Omaha Railway, itself a succes- 
sor to several earlier railway enterprises. 
Like early Worms, which are credited with 
being the original tillers of the earth, these 
pioneer roads afforded the necessary nour- 





ishment for the roads that swallowed them. oie ene 
fer@hicapo, Rock island & Pacific-ap- wre eae ob Che 


. cago and first presi- 
pears to have been one of the few western eae ee 


roads that had a definite objective when ee 


it was started’ “Chartered in 1851 without the Pacific 
suffix, it reached Rock Island in 1854, beating the Chicago & 
North Western to the Mississippi by a year. There it yoked 
up with the Mississippi & Missouri Railway, which was pro- 
ceeding by easy stages across the State of Iowa. When the 
two roads were consolidated, the word Pacific was added to 
premnock island s titles” Che extension’ to’ Council * Biufts 
thereafter was pushed with energy and the junction with the 
Union Pacific was effected in June, 1869. From this time on 
the Rock Island extended its lines to the south and west by 
original construction, at foreclosure sales and by leases as the 
spirit of expansion dictated, much as farmers annex adjoining 
meadow, arable and woodlands. 

Neither Burlington nor Quincy was mentioned in the 
genesis of the great Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Company. 
They were afterthoughts, coming to the fore after the Chi- 


188 HISTORY OF AMERICAN KAIEWAYS 





cago & Aurora and the Central Military Tract roads were 
consolidated, in 1858—Quincy being picked up when the 
Northern Cross road was purchased, and Burlington was in- 
cluded when the line was extended to that city by the pur- 
chase of the Peoria & Oquawka road. Oquawka just missed 
literary fame when Edgar Allen Poe abandoned his design 
of editing the Oquawka Magazine there. It was not until 
1875 and 1880 that the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy acquired 
the lines and land grants of the Burlington & Missouri in 
lowa and Nebraska. From this time on the Chicago, Burling- 
ton & Quincy extended its organization over a myriad of em- 
bryo roads, thereby forming a strong and harmonious system 
which has contributed so greatly to the prosperity and prog- 
ress of the agricultural West. 

Space only admits of giving the history of these typical 
instances of railway amalgamation in barest outline, but it 
will serve to indicate to the student how many of the great 
railway systems of America have grown up more like Topsy 
than from any preconceived and carefully worked out design. 
Necessity called for them and circumstances directed their 
construction wherever the call seemed most urgent, with such 
funds as were available. Owing to the lack of design and 
limited resources, so painfully evidenced in successive re- 
ceiverships, foreclosures and reorganizations, the immediate 
results were not always what might have been desired, and 
yet the ultimate result is the best and most efficient railway 
system in the world. Surely there is a divinity that has shaped 
the course of empire on this continent, build the railways as 
we might. 


CHAPTER VI 


FIFTH DECADE—1870-1880 


ERA OF SPECULATION, REGULATION, GRANGER LEGISLATION AND 
RECEIVERSHIPS 


MERICAN railways went into their fifth decade with an 

overhang from the preceding decade, notorious in the 
annals of stock jobbing as “A 
Chapters Ghatirie: << starting 
with its most virulent phase 
in 1868 in the rivalry for con- 
trol between Cornelius Van- 
derbilt and Daniel Drew, this 
scandal was destined to keep 
the great national achieve- 
ment of 1830-1851 in a succes- 
sion of shameful deals up to 
thé receivership. of 18/5. 
From then on the Erie was 
in financial breakers down to 
tie Mtourth. J receivershrp; -1n 
1893 and reorganization in 
Poreeacecin06. thisiroad . 
has been managed as a rail- as 
way should be; tor gives the!” CHAREES HR ANCIS ADAME "IR 
best public service in its ter- | Author, Railway Commissioner, 
: ears cee : President and Publicist 
ritory within the limits of its 
resources. For this due credit has to be given E. B. Thomas, 
who headed its operations from 1896 to 1900, and to Frederick 
D. Underwood, who succeeded him in 1901. Their struggle 
to live down the legacy of debt and dishonor attached to the 
name Erie by the transgressions of Drew, Gould and Fisk is 
worthy the best traditions of American railways. 

“The Chapter of Erie,” as told by Charles Francis Adams, 


Jr. in his monograph with that title, is a long and intricate 














190 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


—_— —_—  — — — — — — — —— —  —SSSSSSSSSSSFSSSssSsSSeeFs 


one which cannot be more than outlined here. It had its 
prelude in the stock jugglings of Drew as a director and treas- 
urer of the road previous to 1868, by which he was reputed to 
have accumulated millions. Then came the contest between 
him and Commodore Vanderbilt, which involved pretty much 
every variety of maneuver, knavery, abuse of judicial writs, 
fraudulent issue of securities, corruption of judges and legis- 
lators, etc., known to past masters in the tortuous arts of 
“frenzied finance.” Judges were made pawns of the contest- 
ants, and a Tammany chief was allowed a receiver’s fee of 
$150,000 when there was no 
property on Manhattan Is- 
land for a receiver to receive. 
An act which the Drew- 
Gould interests “lobbied” 
through at Albany was de- 
nounced by Judge Barnard 
as “a bill for legalizing coun- 
terfeit money.” Before Gould 
and Fisk got through with 
Drew by means of a stock 
corner, they had stripped him 
of his last dollar and left him 
a wreck on the sands of that 
speculative sea where, for a 
quarter of a century, he had 
flown the black flag. | 
This retribution was Dan- 
iel Drew’s due, but he and 
ee ee Ia his immediate successors sad- 
dled the Erie management 

with an accumulation of liabilities from which no subse- 
quent reorganization has been sufficiently drastic to com- 
pletely relieve it. But, more serious still, the Erie scandal 
has hung like a foul vapor over the railroad world ever since, 
poisoning the popular mind and filling it with mistrust and 
suspicion of the most faithful and efficient public utility in 





FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 191 





the Nation. Verily, the evil men do lives after them, the 
good is often interred with their bones. : 

Jay Gould during his meteoric career was undoubtedly one 
of the most imposing figures 
in the financial and railway 
world. He began his specula- 
tion in railway stocks in the 
early “60s and, besides his 
ventures in Erie, before his 
death he had acquired large 
if not controlling interests in 
the Wabash, Kansas Pacific, 
irom NP Acinc, oot: 4 Louis 
Southwestern, Texas Pacific 
and Missouri Pacific. He also 
participated in the organiza- 
tion of the American Tele- 
graph Company, which laid 
an Atlantic cable and was 
subsequently merged in the 








Western Union, of which he ays JAY GOULD—1836-1892 
: : ailway Financier, Organizer and - 
was the chief stockholder. At President of Many Roads 
; President and Treasurer of Erie 
the time of his death Jay 1868-72 


Gould’s railway holdings were estimated at $75,000,000. 
Another Story of Erie 


There was, however, another “Story of Erie” written in 
an altogether different key from that pervading Mr. Adams’ 
classic brochure. Without extenuating any of the shameful 
incidents attending the exploiting and struggle over its con- 
trol as told by Mr. Adams, this story traces its history from 
its inception as set forth in a preceding chapter through its 
early vicissitudes to its triumphant “opening in Erie” in May, 
1851. The official notification of that opening is a cherished 
historic document in the possession of the Curtis family of 
Callicoon, N. Y., and sets forth that— 

“On the 14th of May inst. the steamboat ERIE will leave 
the New York and Erie Pier, foot of Duane Street, at 6 A. M. 


192 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


for Piermont, whence two Trains of Cars will start for Dun- 
kirk and run by the Time Table on the back hereof.” 

That Time Table allowed for two hours to reach Piermont 
and an even 13 hours to get to Elmira, 283 miles from the 
Duane Street pier. Between Port Jervis and Narrowsburg 
the excursion train was said to have made 34 miles in 35 
minutes, a record that has scarcely been bettered since on that 
particular division. The passengers, among whom were Pres- 
ident Fillmore, Governor Marcy of New York, Daniel Webster 
and as distinguished a body of officials as ever attended an 
opening, became alarmed and some of them wanted the train 
stopped so that they could get off. But it proceeded and 
landed its precious freight safely at Elmira at 7 o’clock, or 
only 20 minutes late. There they laid up for the night to 
resume the journey and speech making next morning at 6 
o’clock, arriving at Dunkirk “about half past four in the after- 
noon” of May 15th. The running time from Piermont to 
Dunkirk, 440 miles, was 21 hours. 

From this point on the author, Edward Harold Mott, 
traces in detail the development of the Erie through a perfect 
maze of administrations, receiverships, and reorganizations. 
Jay Gould is pictured on one page as the shrewdest and most 
unscrupulous speculator that ever matched his wits with the 
powers of Wall Street, and on the next he is credited with 
being a railway wizard of the broadest vision and most daring 
and far flung telegraph and rail enterprise. He certainly 





Jetoyonbiesusroval IbwAl ayahaal Jaen amelie es, 68h bo ah anoc ide DONS 
Population 1920 with three continental roads..... Wee DLO,GtS 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 193 


anticipated the consolidations that have created the great 
systems of today and, according to Mr. Mott, it was only the 
evil destiny that seemed to hover over Erie that in the early 
70s prevented it from becoming the nucleus of the leading 
railway organization between the Atlantic and the Pacific. 

However, the real “Story of Erie,” as it concerns the his- 
tory of transportation on this continent, is not told in the de- 
tails of the titanic struggle of the Vanderbilts, the Drews, the 
Goulds and other speculative financiers for its control in the 
60s, but in the development of a railway whose passenger 
receipts were only $15,165 in 1841, when operation began 
with only 46 miles of line, and freight receipts were only 
$14,523, into the system of 2,183 miles today, whose passenger 
revenues in 1923 were $13,865,994 and freight revenues were 
$95,853,671. In 1841 the Erie carried 11,627 passengers and 
5,779 tons of freight and in 1923 30,985,579 passengers and 
48,333,188 tons of freight. 


Railroad Building Goes On 


Happily for the American people, the clash and clamor of 
conflicting stock manipulators in New York were but the 
braying accompaniments to the persistent and substantial 
progress of railway construction throughout the United 
States. It was inevitable where the financial necessities of 
that construction called for the investment of millions upon 
millions that the birds of prey should hover and scream above 
the tireless pioneers who were pushing rails of civilization to 
the limits of the continent. It is one of the triumphs of the 
‘conquest of America that it refused to be halted or diverted 
by the financial corners, booms and panics that attended the 
projection, construction and completion of its railroads. These 
financial, industrial and political convulsions may be likened 
to the growing pains in the human body. They engrossed 
attention while they lasted and their echoes have never ceased 
to fill and confuse the public ear. But all the while the work 
went steadily on, capital to pay for labor, materials and facili- 
ties was forthcoming—often at usurious cost—from the slow 
accumulations of our own people; from British banks and the 


194 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





deep pockets in the wide breeches of Dutch thrift. The op- 
portunity of gain “beyond the dreams of* avarice’ was the 
lure that brought gold from its hidden stores in old stockings 
and savings banks. ‘The risk was always present to account 
for high interest or heavy discounts. 


But it is not the purpose of this history to dwell upon the 
romance or the tragedy attending the financing of American 
railways. It is concerned with the unfolding of the map of 
the matchless network of rails that binds this Union into a 
real Nation and that affords to its inhabitants on farm, in the 





SIXTEEN-HORSE TRAIN CROSSING WYOMING IN 1870 


factory, at the bench and in every walk of life the best and 
cheapest transportation in the world. 


From the outset railway construction both in America and 
England, not to speak of the rest of Europe, was viewed by 
statesmen, economists and financiers with suspicion and mis- 
givings. In England every charter was obtained only after 
extended and costly parliamentary proceedings. In the Unit- 
ed States early charters were more easily obtained, for the 
public was impatient for improved transportation. Nation, 
state and municipality welcomed the rail as a possible relief 
from the tyranny of poor roads, long hauls and tedious travel. 
But there were adverse interests even here that had to be 
placated and overcome. The stage coach, for which the canal 
development held no terrors, was quick to scent a speedier 
rival in the locomotive. But the canal had dug deep into the 
pockets of investors before the railway had established its 
superior efficiency, and the canal and steamboat interests 











FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 195 


quickly took alarm and for several decades put every obstacle 
they could command in the way of rapid railway expansion. 


Under such conditions it was natural that Congress and 
state legislatures should assert some supervision ovér the 
railways. At first this assumed the form of requiring annual 
reports. But this did not long suffice to satisfy the public 
demand for information about the railways, which under their 
charters were permitted to do pretty much what they saw fit 
and to charge rates that were within very liberal maxima. 





FIRST CLASS PASSENGER BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE 
Built for Central R. R. of New Jersey in 1875 


Railway progress in America had been attended by the 
popular suspicion of lurking monopoly, the prevailing theory 
that competition was the life of trade, the mistrust of carrier 
fixed rates and the jealousy of business concerns and com- 
munities over undue preferences and discriminations. Be- 
tween 1830 and the ’70s, competition wherever railways were 
operated had practically driven stage coaches-and artificial 
waterways out-of the carrying trade on this continent only 
to develop ruinous competition among the rail carriers them- 
selves. Agreements to maintain rates to remedy this condi- 
tion were made only to be broken like pie crust under the 
urge to get business. Pooling, or an arbitrary division of 


196 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


traffic, was resorted to to prevent the recurring rate wars 
with their disastrous consequences. But it lacked cohesive 
strength until, in the early 
AOS wea traitict sassOctation. ot 
southern roads was effected 
with Albert Fink, vice-presi- 
dent of the Louisville & 
Nashville road, as chairman. 
He - proved. to! «possess the 
ideal requirements of cour- 
age, ability and character 
necessary to inspire confi- 
dence in handling the con- 
flicting interests. To these 
were added exceptional fa- 
miliarity with the crucial traf- slosiaiel 

fic problems involved and the Ohas Mie Let 
springs of human action. So ae og 

it was natural, when the Trunk Line Association was formed, 
to extend the southern pooling principles to the national 
field—in 1877, Mr. Fink was chosen as its Moses to lead the 
railways out of the wilderness of cut rates and shipping dis- 
criminations. 

Under his guidance the association effected many needed 
reforms in the handling of railway traffic. But the abuses 
and discriminations, inherent in the original freedom of rail- 
way exploitation from regulation, were tco deep rooted in 
human nature to be cured by any purely voluntary association 
of its beneficiaries. The rivalry and competition of railway 
companies and the competition and rivalry of shipping inter- 
ests which granted preferences, by the former, by cut rates 
to the latter could be eradicated only by some authority im- 
partial enough to decree “just and reasonable” rates and uni- 
versal enough to enforce its decrees. : 





State Regulation 


With the completion of the Union Pacific to which the 
national treasury had contributed so generously, albeit so 





FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 197 


guardedly that every dollar was subsequently repaid with 
interest by the company, there caine a demand for a restric- 
tion on the go-as-you-please metliods. prevailing in railway 
management during the construction period. Out of the popu- 
lar dread of monopoly the demand for some state regulation of 
railways had been growing from their first appearance in 
competition with canals and stage coaches. They were recog- 
nized as necessary public servants but possibly dangerous 
political masters. Massachusetts had gathered primitive rail- 
way Statistics as early as 1836, and Rhode Island and New 
Hampshire had provided themselves with embryo railroad 
commissions. But it was left for Massachusetts to lead the 
way to serious supervision of the railways by legislative action 
in 1869. An Act was passed establishing a commission for 
the regulation of railways within the commonwealth. By 
this statute the commission, of which Charles Francis Adams, 
Jr., was the first chairman, was invested with very broad 
powers of investigation and recommendation, but was de- 
pendent for the enforcement of its findings on public opinion. 
As the Massachusetts statute became the model for one set 
of state commissions in contrast with those organized on a 
widely different principle, the following description by Mr. 
Adams of its distinctive features has historic as well as perti- 
nent current interest: 

“In the West the fundamental idea behind every railroad act was 
force;—the Commission represented ‘the constable. In the Massa- 
chusetts act the fundamental idea was publicity;—the Commission 
represented public opinion. The law creating the board and defining 
its field of action was clumsily drawn, and throughout it there was 
apparent a spirit of distrust in its purpose. In theory an experiment, 
in reality it was a makeshift. The powers conferred on the commis- 
sioners hardly deserved the name; and, such as they were, they were 
carefully hedged about with limitations against abuse.. Accordingly 
when the commissioners entered upon their duties they were at first 
inclined to think that they could hardly save themselves from falling 
into contempt from mere lack of ability to compel respect for their 
decisions. In fact, however, the law could not have been improved. 
Had it not been a flagrant legislative guess, it would have been an 
inspiration. ~The only appeal provided was in publicity. The board 
of commissioners was set up as a sort of lens by means of whch the 
otherwise scattered rays of public opinion®’ could be concentrated to a 
focus and brought to bear upon a given point. The commissioners 


had to listen, and they might investigate and report;—they could do 
little more. Accordingly they were compelled to study their subject, 


198 HISTORY -QF AMERICAN RATLWAYS 


and with each question that came before them they had to stand or 
fall on the reasons they presented for their conclusions. They could 
not take refuge in silence. Whenever they attempted to do so they 
found themselves introuble. They had, as each case came up, to argue 
the side of the corporations or of the public, as the case might be; 
but always to argue it openly, and in a way which showed that they 
understood the subject and were at least honest in their convictions. 
Placed from the beginning in this position, the board was singularly 
fortunate in the permanence with which its members were continued 
in office. But two individual changes were made in it during nine 
years, and it has undergone no change during the last six. Accord- 
ingly it had a chance to outlive its inexperience and profit by its own 
blunders, which naturally were at first neither trifling nor infrequent. 

“The result was necessarily as different:from that reached in the 
West, as were the conditions under which it was reached. The board 
in the first place became of necessity a judicial in place of a prose- 
cuting tribunal. It naturally had often to render decisions upon mat- 
ters of complaint which came under its cognizance in favor of the rail- 
road corporations;—whether it decided in their favor or against them, 
however, its decisions carried no weight other than that derived from 
the reasons given for them. The commissioners were therefore under 
the necessity of cultivating friendly relations with the railroad officials, 
and had to inspire them, if they could, with a confidence in their 
knowledge and fairness. Without that they could not hope to sustain 
themselves. On the other hand, their failure was imminent unless 
they so bore themselves as to satisfy the public that they were abso- 
lutely independent of corporate influence, and could always be relied 
upon to fearlessly investigate and impartially decide. 

“Undesignedly the Massachusetts legislators had rested their law 
on the one great social feature which distinguishes modern civiliza- 
tion from any other of which we have a record;—the eventual suprem- 
acy of an enlightened public opinion. The line of policy thus happily 
initiated was. carefully pursued. New and wider powers were, year 
by year, conferred upon the board, but always in the same direction— 
powers to investigate and report. The commissioners meanwhile were 
not slow to realize the advantage of their position, and have repeat- 
edly put themselves on record as desiring no more arbitrary powers,— 
as feeling themselves indeed stronger without them. In 1876 this 





TRAIN ON PECOS RIVER BRIDGE, TEXAS 
One of the highest bridges in the world, being 321 feet high. 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 199 





policy reached its final result, as the legislature then placed the entire 
system of accounts kept by the corporations under the direct supervi- 
sion of the board. Its power in this respect was.unlimited. Not only 
was it authorized to prescribe a uniform system upon which those 
accounts should be kept, but they were also to be kept under the 
immediate and constant supervision of its officers, and on proper ap- 
plication the books were to be publicly investigated. * * * Singularly 
enough, also, this act was passed not only without opposition from 
the railroad companies as a body, but with the active assent of many 
oi-theme - tao * 2 

“This measure carried the Massachusetts method of dealing with 
the railroad question to its ultimate point of development under a 
state government. No greater degree of publicity was possible. The 
system was perfectly simple, but none the less logical and practical. 
It amounted to little more than the establishment of a permanent 
board of arbitration, acting without any of the formality, expense and 
delay of courts of law. On each question which came before it,— 
whether brought to its notice by means of a postal card or through 
the action of a city government,—this board was ito make an investi- 
gation. If wrongs and grievances were made to appear, and no meas- 
ure of redress could be secured, the appeal was to the courts or the 
legislature, the board still being the motive force. Thus on all ques- 
tions, not, strictly legal, arising out of the relations of the railroad 
corporations,—whether among themselves, with the community as a 
whole or with individuals, a body of experts—supposed to be skilled— 
was provided, who were clothed with full inquisitorial powers and 
whose duty it was, whether moved thereto by facts within their own 
knowledge or brought to their knowledge through the intervention of 
others, to investigate the doings or condition of the corporations and 
to lay the resulting facts in detail before the public. 

“The policy thus described,’ concludes Mr. Adams, “would seem 
to have worked sufficiently well in Massachusetts.” 


From its earliest introduction state regulation asserted the 
right to amend the charters of the early railroads in the matter 
of rates and fares. For specific maximums they substituted 
the elastic phrase of “just and reasonable rates,” which. has 
become the rule of legislatures, courts and commissions. 

Along this-line regulation had developed the state policy 
of limiting profits to a fair return on the value of property 
devoted to public use. This has introduced into their regula- 
tion at least two moot questions that admit of the widest 
difference of opinion. What is a “fair return” and how shall 
the property be valued? Years of discussion have not brought 
forth a conclusive answer to either question and both omit 
the one thing that is of most consequence to the public. They 
provide no reward or return for efficient and progressive man- 
agement; proceeding, no doubt, on the theory that good man- 
agement, like angling and virtue, is its own reward. But 


200 AISTORYAOFPVAMERICANT RAIL AT. 


American railways have outstripped all others by rewarding 
their projectors, builders and managers—not all according 
to their deserts, but sufficiently to keep ambition alive and 
active. 

No less an authority on this subject than Louis D. Bran- 
deis, now of the United States Supreme Court, has said: 

“To take from railroad corporations the natural gifts of efficiency 
—that is, greater money rewards—must create a sense of injustice 
suffered, which paralyzes effort, invites inefficiency and produces slip- 
shod management. * * * Large earnings are frequently accepted 
as evidence that ‘rates are too high, and invite a demand for reduc- 


tion; whereas, in fact, the large earnings may be due wholly to better 
judgment, greater efficiency and economies in administration.” 






























































BALDWIN’S STEAM MOTOR FOR STREET CAR—1877 


The Granger Laws 


The success of the Massachusetts brand of regulation, 
according to Chauncey M. Depew, for years the Nestor of 
American railway officials, was due to the fact that the com- 
monwealth “had first the independence to appoint a gentle- 
man, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., of character and high prin- 
ciples, who seemed particularly fitted for the work, and then 
amidst all political changes had the sense and courage to 
keep: him. there.” 

In fact, Massachusetts regulation was sane and effective, 
and it would have been well if it could have been extended to 
all other states. But about this time, early in the ’70s, a 
sentiment mistrustful of and hostile to all railways had been 
aroused throughout the West that knew no moderation. In 
its view all railways were badly managed, only some were 
worse than others. This gave rise to the agitation, especially 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 201 


in the West, in favor of drastic regulation of the railways. In 
1867 the National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry was 
formed, consisting of farmers. The local bodies were called 
granges, and each state had its state grange. Its rules dis- 
claimed any intention to interfere in politics, but it had hardly 
got under way before it began to take an active, and for a 
time in the Northwestern states a dominating, part in the 
agitation against railway rates and other practices, which in 
18/71 resulted in the passage of two regulatory acts by the 
Illinois legislature. The first of these fixed maximum rates 
and fares and the other established a commission to supervise 
the railroads and to assist in enforcing the laws for their 
regulation. The former, being declared unconstitutional, was 
replaced by an act authorizing the commission to prescribe a 
schedule of “reasonable maximum rates or charges for the 
transportation of passengers and freight.” $ 


The spirit of this legislation spread like a prairie fire 
through the Western states. Laws of a similar nature were 
enacted in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and 
Minnesota. Particularly drastic measures were passed in Iowa 
and Wisconsin. They fixed passenger fares and freight rates in 
detail. The Iowa law established a fund of $10,000 to pay 
the expenses of private suitors for damages under the act 
and made railway officials 
and employes subject to fine 
and imprisonment on convic- 
tion of violations under the 
act. The Potter law, as the 
Wisconsin act was called, not 
only fixed freight rates but 
established a revised classifi- =— 
Cio eoitseowne bhe rail saree DN OMA NEB tai? 
way officials asserted that this law merely took the lowest 
existing rates for the maximum and then reduced them 25 
Der.cert. ) 








As was inevitable, these drastic laws quickly got into the 
Supreme Court of the United States and resulted in a series 


BOS os FISTORY (OPA AMERICAN SRAM Ay 








of decisions in which new principles regarding the relations 
of the states to transportation corporations were announced 
and made the law of the land. 
They supported the Granger 
laws to the extent of fixing 
maximum rates, even though 
these were challenged on the 
ground of unreasonableness. 
These decisions have been 
modified since. 

Briefly) statedwiethem cons. 
held that the Government 
had a right to regulate the 
use of property for the public 
good and to fix maximum 
charges for public services of 
those with whom the public 
has no choice but to deal. 

Boeiestung _ Such regulations were never 
USO oe ESET A870 7.12 AG0RS  cuposed ato, dent rye mreiman 
*Increase mostly due to railways owners of their property, but 
the devotion of property to a use in which the public has an 
interest subjects it to that extent to public control. . 





SAME STREET IN OMAHA—1922 





TRESTLE ACROSS VALLEY NEAR SOUTH OMAHA 
Process of Filling for Solid Embankment 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 203 


This decision was not without question even on the bench 
from which it issued. Justice Field; one of the ablest jurists 
that ever sat in that great court, held, in agreement with 
Justice Strong, that the legislature had no right to interfere 
with private business and it was giving that body the power 
to confiscate private property, contrary to the Constitution. 
It certainly was anomalous, for it violated the charter rights 
of many of the corporations to charge fixed fares and rates 
far below the maximums in vogue or established by statutes. 
The inviolability of many charter contracts was violated ruth- 
lessly. But from that day there has been no doubt that 
in the United States any industry “affected with a public 
interest” has been subject to 
governmental regulation. The 
only question has been how 
far the regulation could go 
before confronting the con- 
stitutional inhibition against 
confiscation. In the period of 
depressed business to which 
these state laws contributed, 
their more drastic provisions 
were repealed. 

















When Air Brakes Came 


During the first forty years 
of railway development on 
this continent great progress GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE 
had been made in the application of motive power, in the 
increase of carrying capacity and in the creature comforts 
of travel, but the means of stopping trains at stations or 
holding them back on down grades had not kept pace with 
the motive power. It had advanced little beyond the foot- 
brake with which the Jehus of the stage coach period delight- 
ed to alarm and reassure their passengers on hilly turnpikes. 
True, Stephenson by 1833 had equipped one of his locomotives 
with a steam brake, as shown in the accompanying cut, but 





204 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


it was applied to a single unit where the demand was for 
something that would brake every car wheel in the train. 

To the young American of today who has not traveled in 
Europe the hand brakes that still decorate the platforms of 
passenger cars and project above the roofs of freight cars 
seem as unnecessary as the vermiform appendix to man. They 
are relics of the experimental railway age. But they survive 
on many of the railways of Europe, where thousands of freight . 
cars have no brakes at all and only every third or fourth car 
in a freight train has its brake and brakeman. 

With the increase in the weight and speed of American 
trains, both passenger and freight, the necessity for some 
device that would control not only the individual car but 
the whole train became more insistent. The toll of railway 
accidents with display headlines in the newspapers alarmed 
the public and threatened to check the economical develop- 
ment of rail transportation. 

As-in every other evolution of the transportation indus- 
try, the condition found its man. The successor to Watt, 
Stephenson, Baldwin and the long line of railway projectors 
and builders was found in the person of George Westing- 
house, who was to do for stopping trains what George Steph- 
enson had done for starting them. 

Like Watt and Stephenson, Westinghouse was not the 
first in his field of train brake invention. Watt took the model 
of Newcomen’s engine and put the life of practical improve- 
ments into its infant cylinder; and Stephenson found in the 





A PRIMITIVE BRAKE—THE DRAG 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 205 














crude road and track locomotives of Robert Trevethick the 
elements he combined in the “Planet” and “Rocket,” which 
were the forerunners of the long line of giant locomotives 
that. move the traffic of this 
ecotient today. #And, 'so 
George Westinghouse,  re- 
tithing arom Service in ‘the 
Union army in 1865, found 
the field of railway braking 
strewed with ineffective de- 
wices = tor controlling @ the 
wheels of our secondary na- 
tional industry. 


George Westinghouse was PRIMITIVE DOURLE ACTION 
: ; BRAKE 

born in the village of Central 

Bridge, N. Y., in October, 1846, but his future was given its 
bent when his father moved to Schenectady and established 
himself in that industrial center as a maker of agricultural 
and mill machinery and small steam engines. As Westing- 
house was destined to be the leading personality in one of 
the greatest industrial organizations in the world, as well as 
the perfector of the train air brake, a brief sketch of his career 
will not be amiss here. The American youth can study it with 
profit. He came, as his biographer says, of Westphalian 
stock which settled in Bennington county, Vermont, in 1755. 
It is not necessary to go back of his father and mother to 
locate his inheritance of the genius that sees things that | 
should be done and the imag- 
ination and capacity to do 
them and the persistence to 
keep at it until they are done 
right. His father was pos- 
sessed of those sterling quali- 
ties that seem to inhere in 
men born in the foothills of 
Vermont, joined with the in- 


: genious turn of mind that can 
ENGLISH RAILWAY WAGON . 
BRAKE OF 1839 whittle a model of a mechani- 

















206 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


cal contraption out of a cedar shingle or a pine block. He 
blazed the way for his son to the patent office by preceding 
him there with some eight to ten inventions for agricultural 
implements. 

On his mother’s side, George was kin of Elhu Vedder, 
one of the foremost decorative and mural artists this country 
can boast, and it is not unlikely that it was from her he in- 
herited the imagination that saw in the minor inventions of 
his contemporaries the broader possibilities that under his 
organizing touch were to revolutionize transportation on this 
continent. 

Westinghouse Enlists at Fifteen 

Before he was fifteen George ran away from home to enlist 
in the early days of the war. He was promptly retrieved by 
his father and put back to work in the Schenectady shop at 
75 cents a day. His pay was gradually raised to $1.12% a 
day, until the end of September, 1863, when, being now in 
his seventeenth year, he was permitted to join the Union army 
as an enlisted man. He served briefly in the infantry and 
cavalry and was an officer in the navy when he was mustered 
out, in 1865, before he was twenty years old. Shortly before 
his death, in 1914, this veteran of the Civil War said that the 
chief capital he got out of his army experience was “the les- 
sons in that discipline to which a soldier is required to submit, 
and the acquirement of a readiness to carry out the instruc- 
tions of superiors.” From the little shop in Schenectady 
and from a brief sojourn in 
the camps of the army that 
preserved the Union, George 
Westinghouse acquired those 
habits of thought and action 
that were to carry him high 
up on the roll of Americans 
who have served their coun- 


THE WIDDEFIELD & BUTTON try grandly. His school 
BRAKE 





“larnin’” was brief and frag- 
mentary, but his reading was extensive and his command of 


his mother tongue unusually good and forcible. 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 207 








Within a few months after his return to civil life, in 1865, 
Westinghouse took out his first patents. The occurrence that 
directed his attention toward the air brake field in which he 
was to go so far, according to his biographer, was the mischief 
that followed a head-on collision that happened on the railway 
between Schenectady and Troy. 

The first form of brake that occurred to his inventive mind 
was of the buffer kind, in which the brakes on each individual 
car were automatically applied by impact as the brakes were 
set on the locomotive. It was quickly abandoned for a coupled 
chain device running the length of the train, manipulated by 
power from the locomotive. He found, however, that this 
was anticipated by the Am- 
bler patent of 1862. From a 
magazine article describing 
how the rock drills in the 
Mont Cenis tunnel were 
worked with compressed air, 
Westinghouse got the idea of 
transmitting that power in 
tubes from the engine to the 
brake mechanism under 
each car. 

On July 10, 1868, Westinghouse filed his first caveat for 
a patent relating to the air brake. It was a momentous day, 
not only for him but for the railway world, when the Steuben- 
ville Accommodation on the Panhandle Railroad equipped 
with this brake began its initial trip from the Union station 
in Pittsburgh. Its success was immediate. Briefly described, 
its essential parts were: 





THE AMERICAN BRAKE 


An air pump driven by an engine receiving its steam from 
the locomotive; 


A main reservoir into which air was compressed to sixty 
or seventy pounds per square inch; 

A pipe from the reservoirs to the valve mechanism con- 
venient to the engineer; 

Brake cylinders for the tender and each car: 


208 HISTORY” OF AMERICAN’ RAILWAYS 





A line of pipe connecting the engineer’s brake valve with 
brake cylinder; flexible con- 
nections between cars with 
couplings and automatic 
valves opening and closing as 
cars were joined and sepa- 
rated ; 
The brakes were applied 
and released by pistons from 
a each cylinder attached to the 
HIGH SPEED PASSENGER regular hand brakes; 
pr aE The brakes were applied 
when the engineer admitted the compressed air from the loco- 
motive reservoir into the train pipe. : 

Such was the apparatus known as the “Straight air brake,” 
which was quickly superseded by the “Automatic brake.” The 
difference between the two was fundamental—the straight 
air apparatus worked by increasing the pressure in the train 
pipe; the automatic, by the decrease of pressure applied the 
brakes. With the latter, when a train breaks in two or the 


MIGH SPEED BRAKE REDUCING VALVE 
ADIUSTED TOPRETAIN 60 LBS PRESSURE 
IN THE BRAKE CYLINDER. 











THE STEPHENSON STEAM BRAKE, 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 209 





hose bursts the brakes go on automatically, whereas with the 
straight air brakes they are put out of commission, and the 
detached section runs wild. 

Almost before the ink was dry on his patents, George 
Westinghouse organized the Air Brake Company that bears 
his name to manufacture and market his air brake. It started 
in 18/0 with a small plant in Pittsburgh, consisting of two 





























View from below. 


ENGLISH ENGINE AND TENDER WITH WESTINGHOUSE AUTOMATIC, 


buildings with a floor space of 9,600 square feet and a work- 
ing force of 105. 

By 1881 the business had attained such proportions that 
new quarters were acquired in what was then the city of 
Allegheny, now the north side of Pittsburgh. It afforded 
125,000 square feet of floor space. By 1890, when the busi- 
ness had expanded to a production of 100 complete sets of air 
brake equipment a day, and numerous other railway devices’ 
and appliances connected with the distribution of natural gas, 
the company was forced to make its second move to the pres- 
ent plant at Wilmerding, Pa., a town 14 miles from Pitts- 
burgh, created to house the army of employees that followed 
it from Allegheny. Here with buildings having a floor space 
of 1,083,728 square feet, equal to nearly 25 acres, the largest 
of its kind in the world, a force of 6,000 men can turn out 1,000 
complete standard air brake equipments each twenty-four 


210 HISTORY. (OP rAyERICGHN Wat a0 


teed. 





hours in addition to a world of miscellaneous apparatus with 
which the name of Westinghouse is associated. 


It would be a congenial task to elaborate on what the 
automatic air brake has meant to railway development on 
this continent. Without it we would be struggling along 
with 20-ton locomotives, 10-ton passenger cars, 20-ton freight 
cars, 15-car freight trains and a speed limit of 30 to 35 miles 
an hour on passenger trains. Combined with the automatic 
signal system, to which Westinghouse contributed many of 
its best features, the automatic air brake, with its latest im- 





WESTINGHOUSE WORKS AT WILMERDING, PA., 1924 


provements, has made railway operation on this continent 
safe beyond the dreams of its pioneers. } 

The contrast between the floor space of the original West- 
inghouse Air Brake plant of 1870 and that of the vast works 
at Wilmerding in 1923 gives some notion of what this one 
auxiliary invention meant to the railways and to the people 
of this Republic. The Westinghouse train air brake gave to 
American railways that flexibility of expansion that is only 
partly visualized in the increase in the weight of locomotives 
on drivers from 15 tons to 100 tons and of the average train- 
load of 176 tons to nearly 700. It put almost limitless power 
at the transportation service of the American people. With- 
out it New York would still be almost as far from San Fran- 
cisco as it was the day after the Union and Central Pacific 
locomotives met at Promontory Point. 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 211 


Block Signalling 


Hardly had trains between Liverpool and Manchester 
reached the stage of demonstration when the growth of traf- 
fic in weight and speed directed attention to the necessity for 
some system of signals. So as early as 1834 that road intro- 
duced its system of fixed signals, consisting of an upright 
post with a rotating disk at its top, showing red for danger 
and the absence of any indication by day and a white light 
by night for clear. It was soon demonstrated that a narrow 
arm projected against the 
horizon or landscape could be 
seen farther than the same 
area in a Square or circle. 

The British system was 
anticipated in America by the 
installation on the Newcastle 
& Frenchtown (now a part of 
the Pennsylvania R. R.) of 
signals consisting of a large 
white ball being raised to the 
fon, oO tie smast. when the 
train left the terminus, and at other stations half way, and, 
as the trains passed each station, the ball was raised to top 
of mast and lowered after it had passed the next station. A 
black ball was used when the train was disabled. 

The first semaphore signal was designed at New Cross 
and erected by Sir Charles Gregory in 1841. 

“There was no communcation between stations,” said the 
Jate A. H. Smith, president of the New York Central Com- 
pany, in an address before the National Association of Rail- 
road Commissioners in 1909, “each signalman displaying his 
signal at danger after the passage of a train until a certain 
time had elapsed, when it was cleared.” With certain modi- 
fications, this is the basis of our present block and caution 
signals, but it was not until telegraphic communication was 
established, as late as 1863, that the first block signals in this 





BLOCK SIGNALS 


212 HISTORY (OF AMERICAN TRAIEWAYS 





country were installed on the Philadelphia & Trenton 
Railroad. 

In 1866 or 1867 the first automatic electric block system 
in America was installed on the New Haven System at Meri- _ 
den, Conn. This system, with some modification, remains 
in operation today. 

Following the manual controlled signals came the auto- 
matic of the semaphore type and the adoption of green in- 
stead of white for clear signals at night. Then as an addi- 
tional safeguard against mistakes came the interlocking sys- 
tem, which was installed in yards and at intersections, where- 
by an operator with one machine or device was able to control 
the situation over which he presided, so as to prohibit con- 
flicting routes. Gradually the interlocking system was so 
perfected that greater safety was obtained through central 
control. 


Safety Devices and Accidents 


Urged on by sensational reports of accidents, Congress 
and the Commission, about ‘1906, became insistent on the 
adoption of additional safety devices. On June 30, by joint 
resolution, Congress directed the Commission to investigate 
and report on the use of and necessity for block signals and 
appliances for the automatic control of railway trains in the 
United States. The Commission was able to comply with 
the first part of this order, but had to report that there had 
been no practical demonstration of appliances capable of auto- 
matically bringing trains to a stop where danger signals for 
any reason were “ignored by enginemen.” 


These three quoted words should have put Congress and 
Commission on inquiry as to the chief cause of the 
railway accidents that had become so alarmingly frequent. 
They would have learned that the best safety device known 
was a careful workman, alert and watchful, in lonely vigil or 
on the speeding engine. From 1906 to 1924 the campaign for 
safety devices on American railways has been prosecuted with 
unintermittent vigor and it has produced gratifying results. 
But it was not until the railways entered upon their “Safety 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 213 


First” campaign with their employees that the best results 
became capable of statistical demonstration. 

In a noteworthy address at Milwaukee on October 1, 1912, 
Commissioner McChord uttered these memorable words: 


“The most difficult and perplexing factor in this problem 
is the personal equation. The failure of the man at the criti- 
cal moment is the thing to be guarded against, and this in- 
volves generally a reformation in methods of discipline and 
rules of operation.” ‘That reformation with and by the hearty 
co-operation of the personal equation has produced such won- 
derful results that 1922 saw the railways operated with a 
total of 40 per cent fewer fatalities than in the year of the 
commissioner’s address—the figures being 6,326 and 10,585, 
respectively. Moreover, this was in the face of an increase 
Ormueariyecuaner centrin freight traffice and -over./. per cent 
in passenger. 

In all railway fatalities, those in train accidents bear the 
Broportionsor one! to: tenvof those due to’ other causes sin 
some years the proportion has run as one to fifteen. In some 
years trespassers killed exceed the number of all other fatali- 
ties. There has been a marked decrease in this class of fatali- 
ties in recent years. Where between 1903 and 1916 the num- 
ber of trespassers killed exceeded 5,000 annually, in the six 
following years, 1917-1922, the average was below 3,000. 

What progress has been made in protecting train move- 
ment with some form of block signals is shown in the follow- 
ing comparison of conditions in 1907 and 1923: 


System. 1907. 1923. 
Miles. Miles. 

AUTOMaAtICEHIOCIS . oust seat eee 11,474 48,084 
Bontrollied s Viautal ro. ou5 us coeds ks 3,491 63,754 
Nanuala Lelegra pit scl. aes tele de BA SOU ET a STL 
Stat eort Lap letawe cet. aie tiebae cs ZATE Prd at ats. 
OTA ee te eats oT) 59,602 111,838 
Iierease er elo ayearsi ts ticec ee. oc oe 52,230 


Progress in the installment of automatic train control de- 
vices has been slow and cautious because of its experimental 
nature. The reader may judge of the difficulties attending 


214 HISTORY* OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








its introduction from the following paragraph in the Commis- 
sion’s report of December 12,1923: 


“Observations and tests of eight automatic train control 
devices that have been installed for test purposes by different 
carriers were made during the year and plans of 60 devices of 
this character which were submitted to us for consideration 
have been examined and reported upon. Of the number ex- 
amined, 45 were considered impractical or unworthy of further 
consideration in the form presented; 13 possessed meritorious 
features but required further development; and 2 possessed 
merit as safety devices warranting some degree of commenda- 
tion. One of the latter was of the intermittent magnetic-in- 
duction type and the other of the continuous-induction type.” 

The Commission has now ordered the installment of some 
form of automatic train control devices on specified divisions 
of some three score roads. The weak spot in all such auto- 
matic devices is that their maintenance, which depends on 
human vigilance and intelligence, has to be 100 per cent per- 
fect or it endangers all who put their trust in them. All safety 
devices eventually come back to the personal equation of 
which Commissioner McChord spoke. 


P. T. Barnum’s Show First Uses the Railways 


Previous to 1872 P. T. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth 
made its jumps from town to town in short stages on foot, on 
horseback or by clumsy caravans, as best it could. In Febru- 
ary, 1872, says the greatest autobiographer of his time, Phineas 
was threatened with a mutiny of his staff manager and his 
son-in-law, S. H. Hurd, because of his extravagance in adding 
100 horses to his retinue of 500 horses, and in buying giraffes 
and other expensive animals. They figured out what their 
expenses for 180 days would be and that their receipts could 
not exceed $350,000, entailing a loss of $370,000 on six months’ 
business. They also declared that their teams could “not 
travel more than an average of twenty miles per day.” 


P. T. thanked them for their advice, and continued—at least 
he says he did—“I see the show is too big to drag from village 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 215 


to village by horse power and I have laid my plans accord- 
ingly. I will immediately telegraph to all the principal rail- 
way centers between here and Omaha, Nebraska, and within 
five days I will tell you what it will cost to transport my whole 
show, taking leaps of a hun- 
dred miles or more in a single 
night when necessary, so as 
to hit good-sized towns every 
day in the season. If I can do 
this with sixty or seventy 
ercieit .Gars)> Six passenger 
cars and three engines, within 
such a figure as I think it 
ought to be done, I will do it.” 

“Within three days,” con- 
tinues the narrator, “the rail- 
road telegrams were gener- 
ally favorable and we then 
and there resolved to trans- 
port the entire Museum, Me- 
nagerie and Hippodrome, all 
the coming season by rail, enlisting a power which, if ex- 
pended on traversing common wagon roads, would be equiva- 
lent to two thousand men and horses.” ‘The italics are Mr. 
Barnum’s, and the world knows he was always within the mark. 

In Appendix II to his “Struggles and Triumphs,” edition of 
1873, Mr. Barnum gives the sequel to this daring venture. 
“The idea of attempting to transport by rail any company or 
combination requiring sixty-five cars—to be moved daily from 
point to point—was an experiment of such magnitude that 
railroad companies could not supply my demands, and I was 
compelled to purchase and own all the cars.’”’ This he did. 
“So at the appointed time the great combination moved west- 
ward by rail. It visited the States of New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Virginia, 
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, 
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. In order to exhibit 
only in large towns it was frequently necessary to travel one 





PORTRAIT OF PT. RARNUM 


216 HISTORY OF -AVMERICAN Sia) EADS, 





hundred miles in a single night, arrrving in season to give 
three exhibitions and the usual street pageant at 8 o’clock 
A.M.” | 
Thousands and tens of thousands of American citizens 
living today remember that train, with its P. T. Barnum ban- 
ners, traversing the continent from New York to the Missis- 
sippi, and they will be glad to know that financially it met 





BUILT FOR NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA & OHIO R. R. IN 1880 
—Courtesy American Locomotive Co. 


its great projector’s anticipations. “The entire six months’ 
receipts of the Great Travelling World’s Fair,” says he, “ex- 
ceeded one million dollars. The expenses of the 156 days 
were nearly $5,000 per day, making about $780,000, besides 
the interest on a million dollars’ capital, and the wear and 


tear of the whole establishment.” 

And so the railways once more demonstrated their su- 
periority to any known means of transportation and brought 
“the greatest show on earth” to the youth of what was then 
the accessible part of the Union north of the Potomac. Hav- 
ing done this, Mr. Barnum fitted up another “Museum, Men- 
agerie and Circus” for an invasion of the Southern States. 

In October Mr. Barnum visited Denver, taking the Kansas 
Pacific Railroad, “seeing many thousands of wild buffalo, our 
train sometimes being stopped to let them pass.” Since then 
all the buffalo have passed from those grazing plains into 
ZOOS or preserves. | , 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 ANG 








The Panic of 1873 


In the progress of society there are always forces at work 
that make small account of the acts of legislatures and the 
decrees of courts. So it happened in the’ case of American 
railways in the early days of the decade 1870-1880. The Civil 
War had not only brought all industrial progress to a com- 
parative pause, but by its legacy of an inflated currency had 
prepared the way for the financial cataclysm of 1873. It is 
not difficult to trace the part played in this by the railways. 





ALASKA DOG SLEDGE OF 1880 


Between 1860 and 1865 only 3,303 miles of line were built in 
the United States. With the return of peace, construction 
was resumed with feverish activity. In the eight years, 1865 
to 1873, the mileage jumped from 35,085 to 70,651 miles—that 
is, it more than doubled. In the matter of railways the United 
States was being overbuilt at a rate that presaged a day of 
reckoning. Where it had been demonstrated, to quote Poor’s 
Manual (1877-78), “that to enable railroads to operate at a 
profit a population of at least 850 to a mile is necessary in 
this country,” this ratio had fallen from 1,026 in 1860 to 730 
in 18/0 and to 590 in 1873. In the Western states in .1876 
there were only 427 inhabitants to the square mile. More sig- 
nificant still was the shrinkage in gross earnings per mile. 
These dropped from about $9,000 per mile in 1870 to $8,116 
in 1872, to $7,933 in 1873 and before the panic had spent its 
force to $6,381 in 1877. The large receipts per mile previous 
to 1871 had furnished the stimulus for the over-construction 
of unproductive mileage which swept scores of railways into 
bankruptcy during the business stagnation that attended the 
restoration of our currency to a sound money basis following 


218 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








the return to specie payment on January 1, 1879. An exami- 
nation of the reports of the leading systems that went into 
the hands of receivers in 1874 reveals the fact that their diffh- 
culties proceeded from one of two causes—either they were 
in process of construction involving the raising of large sums 
before they had begun to earn sufficient revenues to pay oper- 





HELENA, MONTANA—ABOUT 1880 : 
—From Collection of Montana Historical Society 


ating expenses; or their income was so depleted by the reduc- 
tion of rates below a profitable basis that the cost of operation 
absorbed too large a proportion of their earnings. 

The Northern Pacific, which was begun in 18/70 and was 
being built almost directly toward the sunset, was an example 
of the former. Jay Cooke, whose firm had acted for the Gov- 
ernment in floating the Civil War bond issues to the extent 
of $2,500,000,000, an unheard of sum previous to that time, 
became the fiscal agent for the Northern Pacific and advanced 
large sums of money on its bonds. By 1873 it had 555 miles 
in operation, getting’ practically nowhere. It had issued 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 pig 











$30,780,940 bonds, from which it had realized only $22,766,923, 
so that it was paying 7 3-10 per cent on what it received. 
In 1874 its earnings from operation were only $365,343, or 
$22,876 more than its expenses, and Jay Cooke, who had so 
conspicuously assisted in financing the Civil War, was forced 
to the wall because he could not tide the Northern Pacific 
through the years succeeding the panic of 1873. The road 
went into the hands of a receiver and Jay Cooke’s firm went 
into bankruptcy. Through the process of reorganization, in 
which the bondholders took preferred stock for their prin- 
cipal and interest, the building of the Northern Pacific was 
resumed and completed, and in the sequel Jay Cooke’s fortune 
was rehabilitated. 

How the Granger raid on rates reacted on railway rev- 
enues is shown in the decrease of 71-100 of a cent per ton 
mile between 1871 and 1876. This reduced the operating 
revenues by approximately $130,000,000, and accounts for the 
following results, as shown in the receiverships of 1874-77: 


In Receiver’s Hands 


Mileage. Capitakstack. Funded Debt. 
| alist: ee amet 6,825 $235,179,273 $236,285,961 
at he Pee eae 6,280 211,740,414 204,312,038 
i Re FU eae a BG EP, 87,181,928 114,783,799 
PS jy le rata 3,017; 65,454,116 95,937,385 

elbetal eectos 20,714 $599,555,751 $651,319,183 


Among the roads involved in this financial maelstrom were 
the following well-known titles: The Erie; Long Island; 
Central Railroad of New Jersey; Mobile & Ohio; Wheeling 
& Lake Erie; Wisconsin Central; Rio Grande; St. Joseph & 
Denver City; Northern Pacific; Burlington, Cedar Rapids & 
Missouri; Burlington & Southwestern; Atlantic & Great 
Western; New Orleans, St. Louis & Chicago; Chesapeake 
weihio, New Orleans & Pexas; Union. Pacific and the 
Kansas Pacific. All told, in the period between 1873 and 
1880, inclusive, over 150 roads sought the protection of the 
courts from insistent creditors. In the reorganization that 
followed, scores resumed operations under aliases that served 


220 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








to obscure their identity. Consolidations were then the order 
of the day. It is well to note that in the receiverships of 
this period the proportions of capitalization involved were 
47.9 per cent stock and 52.1 funded debt. 


The Eads Bridge at St. Louis 


In the development of railways on this continent the construc- 


pF CW. 1858 9) 





ENGINEERS PROFILE OF THE EADS BRIDGE 


tion of the so-called Eads Bridge across the Mississippi, opened 
July 4, 1874, ranks high. It is well named after its projector 
and constructing engineer, who had more than the usual obstruc- 
tions, financial and skeptical, to overcome before it was accom- 
plished at a cost of about $7,000,000.: Some of the physical diffi- 
culties to be surmounted, can be dimly visualized, by the aid of 
a magnifying glass, in the little profile illustration given herewith. 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 Zot 





But the unruly nature of the Mississippi River, reinforced at this 
point by the mighty but quixotic Missouri, are left to the imagina- 
tion. Provision had to be made for seasonal floods that rose 
thirty or more feet above mean and scoured the bottoms of the 
piers down to their bases. The main river bridge consisted of 
three arch spans, one central of 520 feet in the clear and two side 
arch spans of 502 feet each. The two shore abutments measured 





THE EADS BRIDGE AT ST. LOUIS, MO. 
Built 50 years ago. 


225 feet each. The bridge and approaches were about a mile long 
and had two levels—for railway and highway. 

When completed the Eads Bridge was so scientifically and 
honestly built that for more than fifty years it has stood steadfast 
against floods of water and ice, and today presents the firm front 
of beauty and strength shown in the photograph taken in 1924. 

The most spectacular single event in the railway history 
of this decade was the record breaking run of what was 
known as the Jarrett and Palmer Special from New York to 
San Francisco, 3,313.5 miles, in 80 hours and 20 minutes. The 
distance has since been negotiated in 70 hours. The trip 
was organized to transport Lawrence Barrett, a leading star 
actor of the period, and his company, scheduled to appear at 


Zia HISTORY Of AMERICAN - RAILWAYS 





the California Theatre in “Henry-V~ on June 5,.48/6.46 0ne 
special train consisted of locomotive and tender, one Pullman 
hotel car, one combination passenger and smoking car and 
one baggage car. It left New York over the Pennsylvania 
at 12:40 A. M. June 1, and reached Pittsburgh at 10:56 A. M., 
having made the 439.5 miles in 10 hours and 16 minutes, with 
one engine and not a single stop; it got to Chicago, 468 miles, 




















| Bialher Orrle.. 7 Eis Gok emcee age_$ J 

Of = wenn L290 — Lodge No..L@...-directs in case of his demise while | 

wae =, —} @ member of this Lodge, that all Moneys or Benefits he may be entitled 
oe e ie ‘| to at that time be paid to Lees. eae gw. Sox, | PR ie thst a 
by Riga pica Se Zz oe 

| ee Me... vir, whose residence is uate. LY aadks, On 99 be 28 es 

ee Ee i [sical URE (re “] anh op ... Fe 

SS. ay ‘ een Qignature of Financeal Segectary } ; no. os eceuteth. ae 

| EaeOT? 9 eres $f, Preece ite “{ ae PP ON en. | 


INSURANCE CARD OF BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN 
IN 1876 


that evening at 10:43; to Council Bluffs (503 miles) over 
the Chicago & North Western at 10:00 A. M.; to Ogden 
(1,022 miles) over the Union Pacific at 10:57 A. M.; and to 
san-Francisco. (881 miles).over the Central: Pacific at)12:57 
P. M., June 4. The maximum speed attained was 72 miles 
an hour on the Union Pacific, but the most remarkable run 
was that from Ogden to San Francisco with a single engine 
and the air brakes inoperative for more than two-thirds of 
the way, and sixteen operating stops. They make bigger en- 
gines now, but few of them could better that performance, 
although better is done on regular schedule by at least one 
road. 

Mr. Barrett opened on’ time, as I know, for I was there 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 223 


to see him, but he made no such Henry V as George Rignold, 
who had stolen a march on him. 


The Railroad Riots of 1877 


Nothing before or since in the nature of railway strikes, 
accompanied by mob violence and riots, has equaled those 
that broke out in 1877 and swept across the country, inter- 
rupting traffic, resulting in the destruction of millions of dol- 
lars’ worth of property and costing scores of lives—and accom- 
plishing no good. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, thou- 
sands of working men were idle and _ all were discontented 
over the reduction in wages attendant on a falling market. 
In July a 10 per cent reduction in wages on the Baltimore & 
Ohio precipitated a strike. The engineers and firemen claimed 
that they could not live and maintain their families on the 
reduced pay and the company claimed that it could not pay 
the old scale and earn interest on the capital of the road. The 
firemen at Martinsburg, Maryland, left their work and drove 
other men who offered to take their places from the engines. 
Then the rioting began. The town authorities were power- 
less. State aid was summoned, but the militia was in sym- 
pathy with the strikers. All traffic at Martinsburg was 
blocked, with nearly 100 locomotives with trains attached 
blockading the railway yards and stretching two miles on 
either side of Martinsburg. An angry mob held possession 
of the city and threatened its destruction. The torch was 
applied to railway property in various directions. After a 
_ clash between the rioters and the Sixth Maryland Regiment, 
Governor Carroll called on the President for federal aid, 
which was promptly dispatched from Baltimore, and the riot 
at Martinsburg ended with a casualty roll of 30 to 40 wounded 
and 9 killed outright, “all of them rioters,” although several 
of the militia were seriously injured. 

The more serious riot at Pittsburgh in the same month 
followed the same course, only outside rioters took the torch 
and brickbat and revolver out of the hands of the strikers and 
threatened Pittsburgh with destruction. 


224 HISTORY “OF AMERICAN -RATEWAYS 





Following the panic of 1873, the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company reduced the wages of its employes 10 per cent. As 
business continued to decline, another reduction of 10 per cent 
was ordered, effective June 1, 1877. Both these reductions 
were finally accepted. But on July 16 an order was issued 
increasing the number of freight cars in a train from 18 to 36, 





THE HEAVIEST BALDWIN TYPE OF ITS DATE, 1875 


Built for the Lehigh Valley R. R. and Exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition, 
° Philadelphia, 1876, 


without increasing the crew, and employing an extra locomo- 
tive known as a “pusher” on up grades. 

This incensed the train employes, who refused to take out 
trains, and the crews of all incoming trains joined the strikers. 
Before the railway officials had time to parley with their 
employes, a formidable mob gathered from the worst elements 
of the city. The Mayor appeared on the scene with an inade- 
quate police force and the Sheriff came in with a hastily sum- 
moned posse, part of which promptly deserted to the rioters, 
who greeted the officers with hoots and jeers. The local 
military were called upon, but proved unequal to the emer- 
gency, and as the mob was increasing in numbers and vio- 
lence the Governor was appealed to and a division of troops 
was ordered to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia. When it at- 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 225 





tempted to take up a position to protect the roundhouse, it 
was met with a shower of stones and other missiles, hitting 
several soldiers, who were ordered to fire, the first volley 
killing about 20 persons and wounding 30 others, three of 
whom were children. The enraged mob closed in on the mili- 
tary and drove them into the roundhouse. This the rioters 
sought to burn by sending blazing cars of whisky and petro- 
leum down upon it. The com- 
manding officer appealed to 
the mob to desist or he would 
open fire. It continued the as- 
sault, and another volley 
added more rioters to the list 
of casualties. 

This all took place on Sat- 
urday. The troops held their 
position until Sunday morn- 
ing, when they retreated and went into camp at Sharpsburg. Dur- 
ing Saturday night and Sunday the mob took possession of the 
city and looted the armories and gunshops. On Sunday the 
roundhouse and all the locomotives in it were destroyed by fire, 
as were also the Union Depot, the grain elevator, the Adams Ex- 
press building and the Pan Handle Depot. The firemen were 
driven away from the burning buildings. A committee of citizens 
attempted a conference, but found no leaders to confer with. 
Finally a Committee of Public Safety was organized to take 
charge of the situation. Governor Hartranft issued a peace 
proclamation and came personally to Pittsburgh with two or 
three thousand troops, the Mayor’s backbone was stiffened, a 
number of prominent rioters were arrested, and in a few days 
quiet was restored. 

As an aftermath of this riot, claims to the amount of 
$4,100,000 for losses due to the failure to maintain order were 
made on Allegheny county. These were settled for $2,772,349. 
In all, 25 persons were killed; 1,383 freight cars, 104 locomo- 
tives and 66 passenger coaches were destroyed by fire. 

The historian of this riot concludes his account of the out- 
break with the comment that “The lesson was worth all it 











































































































“TYPICAL AMERICAN- LOCOMOTIVE 
OF 1879 


226 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


cost, and anarchy has never dared to raise its head in the 
corporation limits since that time.” | 

The story finds its place in this history because it presents 
a vivid picture of the course of every attempt to settle indus- 
trial disputes by strikes. The cause of the strikers is first 
espoused by sympathizers, these are quickly joined and out- 
numbered by the turbulent element in the community, who 
employ violence and incendiarism in order that they may 
pillage at their pleasure. Rioters know that rioting loosens 
the restraining hand of law and order. 


Only as the whole community learns that in the end it 
will have to pay for the damages done in riots, as was the 
case in Allegheny county, will it rally promptly behind the 
authorities to preserve order, which in very truth is “Heayen’s 
first law.” 

So far as this strike affected the original issue, the men 
went back to work at the reduced scale, which stood until 
April, 1880, when wages were increased 10 per cent, with 
other adjustments. The increased number of cars in a train 
stood and the “pusher” became a recognized economic factor 
in hauling heavy traffic on up grades. 7 

Another contribution to this history brought out by the 


railway riots of 1877 was the following scale of wages paid 
by the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad: 


Old Rate. New Rate. 
Engineers, per day........ $ 3.50 ce Be, 
Kinemen aneradayecn sn ahs Lie 1.58 
Brakemen, *per “dayorn we eens v5 1.58 
Switchmen, per mo......... 40.00 36.00 
Wardshands,. per ailomeaiecn $40.00 to$ 55.00 $36.00 to$ 49.50 
Shop bands, per 110.2 n wa: 45.00 to 125.00 38.50to 112.50 


The Central strikers demanded a restoration of the 10 per 
. cent reduction, and trains were stopped at Syracuse, Buffalo 
and West Albany. President Vanderbilt refused to restore 
wages in the face of threats, but held out promises for the 
future when business improved. 

There were disturbances on the Erie at Gloucester, on 
the Lake Shore at Cleveland and at Chicago, but the govern- 


FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880 cet 





ors of New York, Ohio and Illinois, by prompt action, pre- 
vented their becoming serious. 


The Centennial Exposition 


Before dismissing this decade it may be well to recall that 
the progress of railway construction in the United ‘States 
made the Centennial Celebration at Philadelphia possible as 
the great gathering of participants from every state in the 
Union. They were the channels through which the life of the 
Nation flowed back from its remotest parts to the city of its 
birth one hundred years before. It was approximately the 
semi-centennial of railway transportation, without which no 
such exposition of the material progress in the world as that 
witnessed at Philadelphia by over 9,000,000 visitors could 
have been possible. 

Among the exhibits at that exposition that were destined 
to aid in expediting the transaction of business was the type- 
writer, which in infinitely improved form may be found in 


40,000 or 50,000 railway offices today. 

At the close of the decade the last gap in the roll of states 
without railway communication with the rest of the Union 
had been filled up, and Montana was the only state that was 
credited with less than 100 miles. The significance of this 
exception lay in the fact that neither the Northern Pacific 
nor the Great Northern had made their way across the conti- 
nent. That great empire-building event was to be reserved 
for the following decade. 

- Between 1870 and 1880, in the face of panics, hostile legis- 
lation, receiverships and reorganizations, no less than 40,749 
miles of railway had been added to the transportation facili- 
ties of the American people. Tracks were being laid to con- 
nect farms, mines, factories and consumers. 


French View of State and Private Railways in 1877 


The truth in regard to the relative. merits of state and 
private ownership of railways was as well known half a 
century ago as today. A writer in the Journal des Economists 


228 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





in August, 1877, states the fundamental differences in these 
terms: 


“When two railways situated in the same country, the 
one belonging to the Government, the other to a private 
company, are in almost identical conditions as to working— 
that is-to say, if the receipts per mile of each road and the 
variations of longitudinal section are approximately the same 
—we arrive at the following economic deductions: 


“1. The working co-efficient, or the ratio of expenses to 
receipts in running the roads, is greater on the government 
railway than on the private one. 


“2. In order to obtain the same receipts, the Government 
is subjected to a greater expense than the private company. 

“3. The rate of interest paid on account of construction 
capital exceeds on the private railway that realized by the 
Government railway. 

+4: she expenses,of working per passenger and per ton 
of freight under the system of the State are greater than 
those of the private railway. 

“These results, founded upon the figures of the working 
of many years given us by statistics, are a characteristic mark 
of the inferiority of the working of railways By the State, 
compared to the working by private companies.’ 





FIRST SANTA.QFE TRAIN INTO LAMY» Mae S77 


CHAPTER VII 


SIXTH DECADE—1880-1890 


WHEN UNRESSfRICTED ExPANSION REACHED ITs HEIGHT AND 
FEDERAL REGULATION BEGAN 


ORDS cannot add to the story of railway expansion in 
| the United States told by the cold figures of mileage 
built between 1880 and 1890. 
When Rutherford B. Hayes 
entered upon the last year of 
his presidential term, in 
March, 1880, there were only 
93,671 miles of rail line in the 
country. As Benjamin Har- 
rison ended his second year 
in the White House, in 1890, 
there were 159,271 miles, an 
increase of 65,600 miles, or 
70 per cent as many miles as 
had been built in the preced- 
ing half century. In 1880 the 
grain elevators in the United 
States represented an invest- 
ment of over $10,000,000 and 
had a capacity of upwards of 
27,000,000 bushels of grain, JUDGE THOMAS M. COOLEY 1249 

This was the reaction of merce Commission 
unrestricted American energy and enterprise to adverse con- 
ditions which had to be met and overcome throughout the 
preceding decade. From 18/70 to 1880 railway building had 
proceeded with great rapidity in spite of an extended period 
of business depression. The demand for increased transpor- 
tation facilities was so urgent and insistent that new lines 
were projected, financed and built regardless of scandals, 
adverse money markets and successive receiverships. The 
people and their transportation needs demanded the railwa 





230 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


and one way or another they were provided. But with the 
return of good times and stable money in 1880 a frenzy of 
railway construction seized all communities from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, and more miles of rail were laid in the United 
States in a decade than Germany and Austria could boast 
when they started the World War. 

In considering this amazing development, it is well to re- 
member that after the close of our Civil war the republic had 





REPRESENTATIVE BALDWIN PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE 1880 
Built for the Atlantic Coast Line 


grown at-a startling pace. Between 18/0 and 1880 the 
population of the United States had increased from 38,558,371 
to 50,155,783 (over 30 per cent) and our national wealth from 
16 billion to 30 billion (87 per cent). In the mean time the 
value of farm lands and property had increased from 
$8,944,857,749 to $12,180,501,538, or over 36 per cent, chiefly 
due to accessibility by rail between farm and market. 
Where the war had reduced immigration to less than 
one hundred thousand a year, the return of peace in 1865 
revived and swelled it to such an extent that in the following 
ten years more than three and a quarter million aliens were 
landed on our shores. The panic of 1873 and the business 
depression put a damper on the incoming rush of homeseekers 
who preferred the ills of Europe to the possibilities of the 
unknown American wilderness. With the return of prosper- 
ity the tide of immigration again set in with the force of a 
released flood, so that in the following decade it reached a 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 231 





grand total of 5,250,000. While many of these newcomers. 
did not journey far beyond the cities of the seaboard, the vast 
majority were booked for the vacant lands of the West, 
whither the railways carried them in ever-increasing num- 
bers. It was during the two decades 1865 to 1875 and 1880 to 
1890 that the Northwestern states from the Indiana-Illinois 
line to the Pacific received those great accessions of foreign- 
born citizens so necessary to their development, but which 
have always been suspicious of the one instrumentality that 
made life in their remote homes not only possible but pros- 
perous beyond the days when they turned their emigrant 
eyes toward the land of liberty and plenty. 

To understand how railway construction and population 
went hand in hand during the decade 1880-1890 to build up 
cur fertile empire of the West, it is only necessary to glance 
at the following table of the concurrent increase in railway 
mileage and population in the principal states of that vast 











region between those census dates: Ponuacen 
Miles of Railway Increase 
1880. 1890. Increase. 1880 to 1890. 
Colorlines. dams. a eecU 4.148 1,928 343,436 
GolGradowaes. ves: L531 4,154 2623 PAW EIA! 
iE RENO catia d, is 220 941 721 Si 7/5 
TUSHGIS (ote ce ns © 7,955 9,843 1,888 748,480 
ROC eo. the. 5255 8,347 oy) tZ 287,281 
HOT Ges’ Cher. ot oe 3,439 8,806 5,367 431,000 
Esch aries «te: 3,931 6,789 2,858 456,952 
Minnesota’ ...... 3,108 5,466 2,358 521,053 
Miassaurt sock... 4011 5,897 1,886 510,804 
MOA adwos Pye 48 2,181 Fad A 93,000 
Weprasita’ on vst. 2 2,000 5,274 3,274 606,508 
North. Dakota-<..- 635 1,940 1,305 154,074 
Oreo nite Ge ia esos 1,269 687 138,999 
rlanomia eet a.- 275 P2ES 938 61,834 
South: Wak Otau« sae 000 2,485 1,855 220,332 
1 ee, PR ae ee 3,293 7,911 4,618 643,774 
Washington ~..5< — 2/74 1,699 1,425 274,274 
MiSconsin 25... S130 5,468 2,338 371,383 
Wiavromiitu A ana« L472 941 469 39,916 
Arizona Metis ts E384 1,061 677 19,180 
New Mexico .... 643 1,284 641 34,028 
Potalsenre ss. 44,016 SF Tl7 43,101 6,255,942 
Picreasen per Scents. aacsa, as Pe 97.9 40.8 
United States... .93,671 159,271 65,600 12,466, ote 
Increase (per CED ol pie ee ee re 70.0 24. 


Balance of States.49,655 72,154 22,499 6,238 4560 
Increase (per cent) Deine. circa on 45.3 17.9 


232 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The percentages tell the amazing story of how the over- 
construction of railways from 1880 to 1890 opened up the 
valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri to a population that 
increased over 40 per cent where that of the rest of the Union 
recorded a gain of less than 18—itself a substantial increase. 

Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas and Washington naturally 
show phenomenal growth both in railway mileage and popu- 
lation, for it was through these newly admitted states that 





SEATTLE, WASH., IN 1878 
Population—1870, 1,107; 1920, 315,312 ° 


the Northern Pacific and Great Northern were rushing con- 
struction to the Pacific. 

The ,southern tier of states was not content to be without 
a transcontinental railway. But unlike the pioneers of the 
northern routes they had no frontier jumping off places like 
Omaha and St. Paul. As far back as 1858 the early settlers 
of Kansas had perfected measures for the construction of a 
short line from Atchison to Topeka, a distance of some 50 
miles. But the shadow of the coming Civil War cast its 
blight over this project on which nothing was done for five 
years, when, under the new title of the Atchison, Topeka & 
Santa Fe, it was revived with some show of being completed 
by the aid of a land grant of some 6,400 acres per mile. But 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 233 





land at $1.25 per acre was a drug on the Kansas market in 
those days and railway construction required cash. The 
terms of the grant called for the completion of the entire line 
to the western border of the state by June, 1873, and when 
August, 1872, rolled around only 61 miles had been completed. 
This left the company with over 400 miles to go, and only 
ten months left in which to 
do it. With bankruptcy star- 
ing them in the face in case 
they failed to make the goal 
in time, the owners of the 
Toad eataade: the grade’ “on 
time, only to be met at the 
threshold of Colorado by the 
panic of 1873. By a compro- 
mise with their bondholders 
the road was kept out of re- 
ceivers’ hands during the en- 
suing depression. 





SEATTLE 1884 AND 1924. 


Transformation by Rail Transportation. 
Until the railways came Seattle was 
a Pacific Port without shipping. 

—L. R. Dale, Photographer. 


In 1880 construction was 
resumed along the valley of 
the Rio Grande in the direction of Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
In this part of its extension the tracklayers followed closely 
the old Santa Fe trail, which labor-saving policy left a legacy 
of engineering and expense to their successors in providing 
the alignment and grades of the present great Santa Fe 
system. That system had to pass through a maze of negotia- 
tions and traffic arrangements with rival companies before it 
reached the Pacific coast. ‘Then it faced East, and by 1888 it 
was finally linked up with Chicago, thus completing, after 
30 years, a destiny not dreamed of by the incorporators of the 
Atchison & Topeka Company in 1858. 

Another instance of how in the American railway field 
“great oaks from little acorns grew” is afforded by the history 
of the Southern Pacific. The acorn of this great system was 
planted ina little local line of 50 miles from San Francisco to 
San Jose, chartered as long ago as August, 1860. This road 


234 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





was taken under the wing of the Central Pacific, in anticipa- 
tion that it might some day become useful in the golden 
future that was always dawning in California. That future 





FIRST LOAD OF CATTLE ON SEATTLE WATER FRONT, 1880. 
Seattle on hill in background 


dawned for the San Francisco & San Jose road when, in 18/0, 
Messrs. Stanford, Huntington, Crocker et al detached it 


from the Central Pacific, which they controlled, and made it 
the initial section in the Southern Pacific Railroad, then first 





SEATTLE, SAME POINT IN 1924 
City on hill in distance 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 253 











organized to build a line to the state line at Yuma, where it 
was expected to connect with the Texas Pacific. By a branch 
line to Fort Mohave, on the Colorado river, it was designed 
to meet the Atlantic & Pacific road then on its way across 
the Indian Territory. The project had a land grant of 
4,800,000 acres from the State of California and was prose- 
cuted with the indomitable will and energy characteristic of 
the men behind it. Before this, save for a short line in the 
San Joaquin valley, southern California was without railway 














UTAH CENTRAL ENGINE ABOUT 1884 
—U,. P. Magazine. 


connections. In 1870 Los Angeles was a small town of less 
than 6,000 inhabitants, its connection with the outer world 
being by steamship from San Pedro on the coast, 25 mlies 
away. As late as 1880, after railway service had rescued it 
from its Spanish lethargy, Los Angeles was credited with a 
census population of only 11,183. Its marvelous growth since 
then it owes to the railways. 


Automatic Couplers 


Early in its supervision of railway affairs the attention of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to the 
necessity for some appliances to take the place of the link and 
pin system that had served to connect railway vehicles from 
the days of Stephenson and the “Rocket.” It was moved to 
take some action by the frequent fatal accidents incurred in 


236 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


— 





coupling cars and the clumsy and slow process of making the 
connection. The difficulty confronting the Commission was 
not to find a substitute for the link-and-pin—the offices of 
the railways were infested by inventors—but none of them 
had hit upon the device that would stand the test of “various 
and extended trial in actual service.” As the Commission 
said in its third «annual Te- 
ee port for 1889, “Although some 
Wy thousands of couplers have 
been patented, the difficulty 
has not been to choose among 
good ones, but to find any 
good one.” Uniformity, so 
that the couplers would 
couple with one another 
throughout the country, was 
an imperative essential in any 
device to secure the Commis- 
sion’s approval. Many of the 
couplers “which gave _ the 
FI AND EIN (COUPLERT Lote athotes Di OM comma atc ames 
trial,’ said the Commission. 
In 1882 the legislature of Connecticut took the initiative 
and adopted a statute providing that automatic couplers 
approved by the railroad commission must be placed on all 
new cars, under penalty. Massachusetts followed this lead 
in 1884, Michigan in 1885 and New York in 1886. In 1889 
New York by statute provided that after November 1, 1892, - 
it should be unlawful for railroads to run any of their own 
cars in that state unless equipped with automatic couplers. 
But laws could not be enforced upon roads only partly in one 
state, and the difficulty and danger of substituting one form 
for another was very great, the Connecticut commission ad- 
mitting that the mixture of link couplings with a number of 
different automatic types tended to increase rather than 
diminish coupling accidents. The automatic coupler was 
automatic only with another automatic coupler and not with 
a link. 





SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 257, 





In this cut the top figure looking down on the coupler 
shows one of the latches A, open; the central figure shows 
the two couplers partly engaged, and the bottom figure shows 


i iy 
| Hl! I Ih! | 
i HAAS NANI 


HY | 
HUM i) 


{ LATTA : 
cof ICT 


ll 









































JANNEY AUTOMATIC ON A FREIGHT CAR 


the coupling completed. Thus the cars are coupled auto- 
matically, rendering it unnecessary for the brakeman to go 
between the cars, as the coupling can be released by means of 
a rod extending to the side of the car, which is shown in the 
cut of the perspective of the coupler applied to a freight car. 






—{\ 6 
— ot e8 





AUTOMATIC COUPLER SEEN FROM ABOVE 


3 


238 HISTORY OF AMERICAN ORAILIVAY 





Ss 


The first cut shows the old link and pin coupler. These illus- 
trations are from an article by H. G. Prout on “The American 
Railways,” Scribners, 1889. 

By approving the principle of the Janney car coupler but 
not its specific parts, the Commission side-stepped giving a 
monopoly of its manufacture to any one person, company or 
firm. 

In 1887 the Master Car Builders’ Association, by a vote 
of 474 to 194, approved a type of “vertical plane coupler” as ° 





ONE FORM OF ROTARY SNOW PLOW 


the standard to which all others must conform. The first 
cost of this standard coupler was from $20 to $25 per car, as 
against $10 to $15 for the link-and-pin form. 

By 1890 the Commission was able to report that 25,551 
passenger cars out of 26,820 and 75,485 freight cars out of 
918,491 were fitted with automatic couplers. The freight car 
situation was complicated by the multiplicity of patent coup- 
lers, of which there were no less than: 38 in actual use, the 
two leaders being the Janney and the Miller, which divided 
the majority between them. 

By the Act of March 2, 1893, carriers engaged in inter- 
state commerce were required to equip their cars with auto- 
matic couplers and their locomotives with driving-wheel 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 239 





brakes, and by 1900 the Commission was able to report that 
“for all practical purposes the safety-appliance Act of 1893 
has been complied with.” In that year it reported that 33,927 
passenger cars out of 34,713 and 1,376,051 freight and com- 
pany cars out of 1,450,838 had been fitted with automatic 
couplers. 

At this writing (1924) the adoption of automatic couplers 





ANOTHER PATTERN OF ROTARY SNOW PLOW 


and train brakes has become so universal in America as to be 
no longer a subject for official statistical observation. 


How National Regulation Came About 


But the decade of 1880-1890 will not be distinguished in 
railway history by its record of physical construction, al- 
though this was unprecedented in the annals of railway build- 
ing; nor by reason of the financial distress which followed 
within ten years and was hastened by the too rapid and specu- 
lative recovery from the “panic of 1873;” nor for any of the 


240 HISTORY OF AMERICAN -KRALEW AAS 








achievements or failures to meet the demands of an ever- 
expanding traffic. 

The outstanding feature of the decade so far as the rail- 
ways were concerned was the passage of the “Act to Regulate 
Commerce,” approved February 4, 1887, effective April 5 
following. With that date opened a new era in railway con- 
struction, operation and management. National regulation 
did not come upon the railways out of a clear sky. For more 
than a decade the clouds of popular dissatisfaction with both 





HEAVIEST TYPE OF BALDWIN FREIGHT HANDLER USED IN 1886 


railway management and state regulation had been gathering. 
Daily it had become apparent that state legislatures and state 
commissions were inadequate to deal with the national trans- 
portation problem. It had long been recognized in circles of 
independent thought that the question could not be settled 
by the authority of the states. This was essentially and nat- 
urally prejudiced by local interests. State shippers and mer- 
chants camped on the steps of local authority complaining 
of the discriminating practices of other states and asking for 
reprisals. 

As the railways were extended and consolidated, the bulk 
of the traffic became more and more interstate in its char- 
acter and more difficult for the states to handle without undue 
partiality. This was the fundamental fault of state regula- 
tion. Every state wanted to get the best of its neighbors. 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 241 





The other phase was the too well grounded impression 
that the railway corporations wandered far away from the 
restrictions and obligations of public carriers under the com- 
mon law and had become to a large extent a law unto them- 
selves. Out of the fierce competition of the roads had grown 
abuses of special privileges and preferences. These arrange- 
ments took the form of special rates, rebates, drawbacks, 
under billing and manipulated classifications. Unjust and 
unfair practices had become so general and their beneficiaries 





HEAVIEST TYPE BALDWIN PASSENGER: LOCOMOTIVE USED IN 1889 
—Bullt for Baltimore & Ohio Ry. 


so numerous that the demand for their reform gradually crys- 
talized into Congressional action. In regard to some subjects 
of complaint there was much to be said on both sides of the 
question. This was specially true in regard to the discrimi- 
nating rates on the short and long haul business. To many 
it seemed obviously unjust that a carrier should charge more 
for a short haul than for a long one. But the experience of 
the railway world has justified the lower rate on the long haul 
traffic which was from competitive stations against a higher 
rate on intermediate non-competitive stations. When the 
Act came to be written, this distinction was recognized by 
qualifying the interdiction with the phrase ‘“‘under essentially 
similar circumstances and conditions.” On that phrase has 


242 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


hung a world of litigation over the long and short haul clause 
of the Act to Regulate Commerce. 

There were many other features of railway management 
that conspired to hasten the enactment of the Act to Regulate 
Commerce. For nearly ten years the subject of some federal 
legislative regulation had been before Congress. In 1878 
Representative Reagan of Texas introduced his first “Inter- 
state Commerce” bill, on which the Act to Regulate Com- 
merce nine years later was based. In his selection of the 
members of the Commission to exercise the vast powers con- 
ferred by this Act, President Cleveland was careful to nomi- 
nate only men of recognized national repute for ability and 
judgment. They were: 

Thomas M. Cooley, Chairman, of Michigan; 
William R. Morrison of Illinois, 
Augustus Schoonmaker of New York, 


Walter L. Bragg of Alabama, 
Aldace F. Walker of Vermont. 


The Commission was fortunate and unfortunate in the 
choice of its two chief subordinates. In its organization for 
the vast task in hand it could not have found an abler or more 
energetic man for secretary than Edward A. Moseley, or a 
more capable and conscientious official statistician than Prof. 
Henry C. Adams. So long as the Commission was composed 
of men fully alive to the necessity of constructive regulation, 
these two men were invaluable in adjusting the work of the 
Commission to the best transportation needs of the public 
which were to be attained by stable, reasonable and equitable 
rates for adequate service. But as the Commission lost the 
impetus of its original composition, the dominating person- 
ality and experience of its secretary became apparent in the 
antagonistic spirit of regulation toward the railways, while 
its statistician magnified the role of statistics into manage- 
ment and administration. Mr. Moseley undoubtedly repre- 
sented the popular spirit of mistrust and suspicion that had 
demanded the enactment of the law, as Professor Adams rep- 
resented the prevalent theory of many expert statisticians 
that a living business can be run by dead accounts. 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 243 














Fortunately, statistics came to the aid of the railways in. 


an unexpected quarter. 


The establishment of a uniform 


system of keeping accounts and rendering reports enabled 


them to establish the fact that 
they were not the robbers and 
extortioners the general pub- 
lic had been led to believe. 
ase the:-reports “of “receipts 
and expenditures “and ‘of 
trafic and public service 
came under official supervi- 
sion, it was speedily seen that 
in the aggregate the transpor- 
tation of the United States 
was being handled expedi- 
tiously at lower rates than 
anywhere else in the world. 
chnese=- oihcial,- reports also 

















EDWARD A. MOSELEY 


Secretary Interstate Commerce 
mission—1889-1909 


Com- 


showed that the average rate was steadily declining while the 

price of labor and commodities was advancing. In fact railway 

rates in the United States have never been exorbitant per se. 
Chairman Cooley in his first annual. report gives the 








GEORGE B. McGINTY 


Secretary Interstate Commerce Com- 


mission 1912 


following important _ testi- 
mony as to the remarkable re- 
duction in rates between 1877 
and 1887, before the Inter- 
state Commerce Act was 
passed. “In the former year,” 
said he, “the rates charged on 
first, second, third and fourth 
classes of freight from New 
York to Chicago were re- 
spectively 100, 75, 60 and 45 
cents a hundred pounds. 
They are now (1887) 75, 65, 
50 and 35 cents, but the classi- 
fication as to many article has 


244 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


in the meantime been reduced so that the actual reduction 
is greater than these figures would indicate. Rates from Chi- 
cago to New York are proportionately less. A similar result 
has been apparent elsewhere.” 

During the decade considered by Chairman Cooley the 
average receipts per ton mile—that is, per ton of freight car- 
ried one mile—so. far as ascertained from the incomplete re- 
turns of the period, dropped from 1.364 cents in 1877 to 1.063 
cents in 1887. In the meantime the passenger receipts had 
fallen from 2.614 cents in 18/77 to 2.276 cents im: 18875) By 
the close of the decade under discussion the average ton mile 
receipts had fallen to .941 cent and the average receipts per 
passenger mile to 2.167 cents. The student will find these 
averages worth remembering, for from them can be traced 
the gradual decline of the ccst to the public of transporta- 
tion in the United States until, just before the outbreak of the 
Great War, they reached a point pregnant with disastrous 
consequences unless the descent was checked. 


Capitalization in 1887 


In no way has the Act to Regulate Commerce proved more 
beneficial to American railways than in dissipating much of 
the popular misapprehension as to their over-capitalization. 
All through the period of their construction, from the laying 
of the first rail until their accounts were finally brought under 
the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the 
wildest and widest differences of opinion prevailed as to their 
capital cost and true value. The scandals attaching to the 
financing of certain leading systems obscured the vast sums 
that were expended honestly, faithfully and, on the whole, 
wisely in the main body of American railways. A continent 
had to be redeemed from an almost primeval wilderness of 
forest, mountain, prairie and arid desert. Canals built, as we 
have seen, at vast expense had failed to solve the problem. 
As civilization pushed into the wilderness and realized the 
possibilities that waited on speedy and certain transportation, 
it took small account of the millions drawn from Nationai, 
State and Municipal grants and from private sources and 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 245 





invested irrevocably in making way for the iron highway 
from ocean to ocean. Throughout the first three decades of 
this construction period everything about the railroad was in 
an experimental stage—rails, ties, locomotives, cars, fuel, 
signals, couplings—nothing had reached a point of permanent 
adoption. All had to be tried out—the practicable to be 
adopted, improved and adapted to the different conditions of 
a vast territory, the impracticable rejected and scrapped. The 
only thing about American railways that cost less than it 
was worth was the right of way, and no sooner was the track 
laid and the line opened than this right of way and adjoining 
lands increased in value two-fold, ten-fold and in many cases 
one hundred-fold. But the money to survey, lay out, build 
and equip that line was scarce and hard to get. 

The reader has only to glance at the illustrations in this 
book to realize the wasteful process of elimination that 
attended the building of American railways. And if he is a 
reasonable youth he will have no difficulty in understanding 
how the early railways of New England cost about $40,000 
per mile to build and equip, the middle state roads $53,000, 
the southern roads $30,000 and the western roads $41,000, as 
estimated by Henry V. Poor in 1868, the first issue of his in- 
valuable Manual, which is a railway library in itself. 

Not a decade passed without witnessing a reorganization 
of scores of companies, involving fresh financing, and it is 
safe to say that not a single road survived these periodic 
years of depression without having been sustained and nour- 
ished by net income put into improvements and betterments 
without any corresponding increase in capital account. “The 
dollar for improvements to one for dividends” has been the 
slogan that carried American railways to the farthest bounds 
of the Union with the lowest capitalization per mile of any 
first class railways in the world. 

It is therefore not surprising to find that when the official 
statistician succeeded in bringing order out of the chaos of 
railway accounts he found that there was little or no founda- 
tion for the charges of over-capitalization that had poisoned 


246 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





the popular judgment concerning railway accounting. In 
his first report, in 1888, Professor Adams presented the fol-  ° 
lowing summary of railway capital: 




















Per Cent 
Amount of Total Per Mile 
Outstanding Capital of Road 
Stock— 
Conmimonahesen ne $3,341,476,942 41.11 
Preferred , 522,991,113 6.43 
Total stocks....$3,864,468,055 47.54 $28,232 
Funded Debt— 
BOndsort cee ».«. -$3,816,379,040 46.94 
Car Trust Obliga- 
tions and Receiv- 
ers’ Cértificates?) © 5258377325 65 
Total Funded Debt.$3,869,216,365 47,60 28,266 
Gurrent Liabilities .6> 396,103,311 4.87 2,894 
NP OLAd cee pean as $8,129,787,731 100.00 $59,392 


(Mileage represented, 136,884.) 


The mileage represented in this statement falls 13,018 
short of the total railway mileage of the United States in 
1888, to which it bore about the same relationship as that of 
Class 1 roads to the total in 1923. 

Much of the confusion and misunderstanding in regard to 
railway capitalization, property and return on investment 
that has prevailed under the Act to Regulate Commerce has 
resulted from the inclusion of revenues from investments 
with those derived from rates and fares in operation. That 
Professor Adams understood this may be judged from his 
statement that “For the railway manager, whose interest 
centers in operating earnings and operating expenses, that 
part of the table (the income account) which deals with 
income from stocks and bonds owned, or from rentals, is of 
slight importance.” And yet for thirty-five years the official 
statistics were burdened and vitiated with exaggerated capital 
figures and dividends on duplicated stocks. In 1890 the rail- 
way securities owned by the railways amounted to no less 
than $1,406,907,001, and the net railway capital was 
$7,577 ,327,015, or $48,447 per mile. In that year the track 
mileage in the United States was reported as follows: 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-189¢ 24? 





NTesmor Sinvle- Or imati tracker, aloe owe tet ee 156,404 
Males "OlPseCond utraGks tess sae: ue alesse ee Bot es 8,438 
INDIES S O bet Dincinr a Glctrgs ie nets biomed eee ian teas fas 761 
Mileswol, LomntirrandsOthic es tracers. wee. ee pai. eee 562 
Miles: a2) Vardi ttack=and=sidings- 35 /acce soe 4s bok ees 30)7 41 

‘Potaleimitlieseor soll tracks ek wees ee nee oe 199,876 


This would yield a net capitalization of approximately 
$38,000 per mile of track, including 30,140 locomotives, 26,820 
passenger cars, 829,885 freight cars and 31,020 company cars 
with which to enter the last decade of the 19th century. 


From this time on statistics under the uniform system of 
accounting adopted by the Commission began to play an 
important—well-nigh a dominating—part in the regulation of 
American railways. Now statistics are good servants, but 
poor masters. They are not evena safe crutch. They furnish 
valuable charts and discover leaks, but they do not provide 
favoring winds nor propelling steam to ships at sea nor funds 
to finance railways on land. On the contrary, when developed 
and specialized to meet the views of impractical social agita- 
tors and theorists they lead the unwary into labyrinthian 
depths where blind leaders are as safe guides as angels of 
light. 

Without wise interpretation, railway statistics are a stum- 
bling block. In the hands of designing demagogues they be- 
come a menace to the Republic, whose prosperity depends on 
progressive transportation facilities. 


Railway Labor Organizations 


It was in this decade that railway labor organizations 
began to play an important part in the adjustment of trans- 
portation conditions in America. Throughout the construc- 
tive period, almost absolute freedom of contract had pre- 
vailed, not only with the contractors who built the roads but 
between the managers who operated them and the men who 
worked on the trains, in the yards, in the shops, at the keys 
and in the offices. Individualism was the order of the day 
and no fixed scale was the standard of pay throughout the 
Nation. 


248 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








The underlying principles of labor unionism, as they relate 
to collective bargaining and movements for the control of 
working hours and conditions, were introduced into this coun- 
try from England in the early days of the 19th century. Va- 
rious trade unions and associations were organized in New 
England, 1820-1835. New Hampshire made 10 hours a legal 
day’s work in 1847 and the 
formation of unions became 
national from Maine to Cali- 
fornia in 1850-60; and Con- 
gress ‘passed an eight-hour 
law for Government em- 
ployes in 1868. The spirit of 
unionism following the war 
was abroad in the land at that 
time, 

It was natural, therefore, 
that in their different divi- 

PM. ARTHUR sions railway employes 
Pinsky (Gaand © Chiet | Brotherhood: ofc’: fstrouldiayielte, (oeath clei 
impuse to organize for mu- 
tual protection and benefit. Naturally, too, locomotive en- 
gineers, the most distinctive class of railway workers, took 
the lead. A brief sketch of the inception, organization and 
development of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers 
has been furnished the writer by Grand Chief Warren 5S. 
Stone. As it pictures the evolution of the leading brotherhood 
during the years when the relations of management and em- 
ployes were crystallizing into working agreements, it may be 
accepted as typical in the best sense, and it is a valuable con- 
‘ribution to this history of American railways. 

“Following a very bitter strike on the Michigan Central 
Railroad in 1862,” says Mr. Stone, ““W. D. Robinson, at that 
time secretary of what was known as the National Protective 
Association, started the new movement which resulted in 
what is the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers today. In 
April, 1863, he brought together a number of representative 
locomotive enginers at Marshall, Michigan. This small meet 





SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890 249 








ing called a convention of locomotive engineers to meet in 
Detroit May 5, 1863, and a call was sent out to engineers on 
the Michigan Central, Michigan Southern, Northern Indiana, 
Detroit & Milwaukee and Grand Trunk Railways, and the 
Detroit Branch of the Michigan Southern. 

“On the appointed day twelve engineers met in the Fire 
Department Hall on Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, and for four 
days devoted themselves to laying the foundation for a per- 
manent organization of railroad engineers and named their 
organization the ‘Brotherhood of the Footboard.’ Wm. D. 
Robinson was made Chief Engineer; George Q. Adams was 
Imadee Assistant Chief; Ed, Harrison, Secretary, and|.sam 
Keith eactirer. 

“In 1864 the first convention of the new organization was 
held in Indianapolis, Indiana. At this convention the name 
of the organization was changed to Brotherhood of Locomo- 
tive Engineers, the name that the organization bears today. 

“From its very inception the B. of L. E. grew rapidly and 
attracted to its ranks the best and most conservative railroad 
engineers in the country. In 1867 the Locomotive Engineers 
Mutual Life & Accident Insurance Association was established, 
and to date this association has paid out in insurance benefits 
the sum of $53,057,511.95 and has in effect at this writing 
$183,674,250 of insurance. 

“Since that time a Pension Association has been organ- 
ized which is paying pensions to thousands of former locomo- 
tive engineers. A Widows’ Pension Association has been 
organized which is paying pensions to hundreds of widows 
of former members of the B. of L. E: Pension Association. 
ihe Bo of L. E. has always taken care of its-own’ and no 
member of the organization is a public charge. 

“The membership of the B. of L. E. is made up of con- 
servative, thinking men who have the well deserved reputa- 
tion of living up to any agreements made with railroad man- 
agements by their executive. 

“Since its organization the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
Engineers has had only four chief executives; the first, W. D. 
Robinson, served one year. The second grand chief served 


250 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ten years. Peter M. Arthur served from 1873 to 1903, and 
1 have+been grand “chief of the: B. ofa U2, fora perioggor 
twenty-one years. 

“Members of the B. of L. E. take a very active interest in 
politics from a non-partisan standpoint. The entry of the 
organization into the financial field is so well known that it 
will be unnecessary for me to go into detail regarding the 
various activities of the organization along banking and finan- 
cial lines, but at the present time, through the banks and 
other financial organizations controlled by the B. of +L. i, 
the organization has control of considerably over $100,000,000. 


“It is a rathér difficult matter to write a general review 
of the B. of L. E. and its activities for the reason that we 
have been much more concerned about the question of daily 
living than we have in that of making history.” 

When the Brotherhood of the Footboard was organized, 
there were less than 6,000 locomotive engineers in America, | 
where there are 70,000 now. | Five years after the organization 
of the engineers, in 1868, the Order of Railway Conductors 
was formed; in 1873 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen 
came into existence, and in 1883 the “Big Four” was rounded 
out with the organization of the Brotherhood of Railway 
Trainmen. Associated more or less with these four unions have 
been the Order of Railway Telegraphers and the Switchmen’s 
Union, .But to. this day the “Bie “Bour 7 are acceptecs a 
popular mind as the representative railway labor organiza- 
tions. They have generally maintained an attitude of inde- 
pendence toward the American Federation of Labor, with 
which the Railway Shop Crafts, so called, are affiliated. The 
reason for this difference of affiliation is obvious. The mem- 
bers of the “Big Four” are first and last railway men, while 
the shop crafts are first machinists, carpenters, etc.—in rail- 
way employment today and in outside shops tomorrow. 

In time nearly all the relations between the four classes 
of railway employes represented in the four brotherhoods 
and the railway manager have come to be settled by confer- 
ences between officials of the “Big Four” and officials of the 


SIXTH DECADE, 1880-1890: 251 








ce 


railways. In these conferences the “strike vote” is ostenta- 
tiously displayed, but the strike itself is seldom invoked. 
Reason and the common weal generally prevail and the “Big 
Four” retires with a half or a quarter loaf, but always some- 
thing, under its arm to await a more favorable opportunity 
to come back for the balance of any surplus the railways may 
accumulate. 


The success of these perennial maneuvers is shown in the 
following record of the average yearly pay of trainmen (ex- 
clusive of conductors) by five-year periods since figures are 
available: 


DOGO ME Pw ics cs baleen. $560 LOU De etek. Sar aie tr: $ 826 
VERB 10 valerate iar 598 LER IST © eihied fee beard Beatie 958 
Dayecsh reReU ey Sale panera ge GLC] DES ato nichaie Jel ee 1,626 
LRORUIRD (2d ie a gaa api 710 aI Pee he ae ge one a 1,942 


Contemporaneous with this increase for trainmen, the 
average yearly pay of engineers has increased from $1,020 to 
$2,800, of conductors from $940 to $2,700 and of firemen from 
$630 to $2,005. These averages for something over 300,000 
men in 1923 may be accepted as a remarkable tribute to the 
negotiating shrewdness of the officials of the four railway 
brotherhoods. Thousands of engineers and conductors now 
earn over $3,000 a year. 

In another line the brotherhoods have served their mem- 
bers most effectively. Instead of wasting their resources on 
strikes and industrial strife, they have developed a most 
successful system of death and disability insurance. The 
most distinctive feature of this has been the placing of dis- 
ability insurance on a parity with death insurance. About 
25 per cent of the claims paid out by the railroad brother- 
hoods are for disability. 

With the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, 
the question of the relation of railway management to its 
employes became one of increasing solicitude to the Commis- 
sion and its statistics, which have been gradually expanded 
until they cover every salient feature of railway employment. 
And the latest railway legislation is aimed to provide means 


252 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


of deciding labor disputes so as to prevent strikes that would 
interfere with national transportation. 

Although the avoidance of strikes has been the general 
policy of the typical railway unions, it has not always been 
successful. The Pittsburgh strike of 18/77 has already been 
discussed. In 1888 occurred the great strike of the engineers 
of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. It was in- 
augurated against the order of Grand Chief Arthur, but once 
started received his approval and support. It was bitterly 
fought and caused severe losses to both carriers and train- 
men— to say nothing of the loss and inconvenience of the 
public. The company finally won, but*at a price that left 
victory with the scars of defeat for many a year. 

Then came the Pullman strike of 1894, which started in 
an industrial struggle between the Pullman Company and 
its employes and was taken up by the American Railway 
Union, of which Eugene V. Debs, afterward Socialist candidate 
for President, was active head. This union, which aimed to em- 
brace all railway labor, declared a sympathetic strike against 
all roads moving Pullman cars and succeeded in tying up all 
but six of the 23 railways centering in Chicago. The strike 
was attended with much violence and bloodshed, there being 
12 fatalities and 515 arrests. The loss of the railways was_ 
put at $4,600,000, to the Pullman Company at $350,000 and to 
railway employes at $1,400,000. It was finally broken and 
order restored, but only after the assertion of Federal su- 
premacy over State authorities by President Cleveland over 
Governor Altgeld. The American Railway Union never re- 
covered its influence after this defeat. It did not affect the 
four brotherhoods, which had held aloof from any organized 
assistance to the sympathetic strike. 

The strike of the shop crafts in 1922 will be discussed in 
its proper place. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SEVENTH DECADE—1890-1900 


RAILWAYS BETWEEN THE HorNS OF REGULATION AND 
COMPETITION—CONSIRUCTION SLows UP 


ITH the opening of the last decade of the 19th century 
the railways of America found themselves confronted 


with national regulation in 
its tentative stages while still 
exposed to all the vicissitudes 
and temptations of competi- 
tion. The Commission recog- 
nized the vast proportions of 
the task assigned to it under 
the Act of 1887 to Regulate 
Commerce. The railway mile- 
age, in round numbers, was 
about 160,000. The business 
included the carriage of 540,- 





PRAIRIE STRETCH ON, THE 
UNION PACIFIC 


000,000 tons of freight and 472,000,000 passengers. Chairman 
Cooley thus summarized the situation: 

“Any criticism upon the efficiency of regulation would 
obviously be defective if it failed to take note of the vast 
number of persons and the extent of the business to be regu- 





ORE DOCKS AT DULUTH, GREAT NORTHERN RY. 
Loading and Unloading by Gravity 


254 HISTORY OP AMERICAN RALLVWZAAY S 





lated. The extent of the country is also of vast importance. 
Railway regulation in a small and compact country, where all 
the carriers are easily kept under observation, and where 
the circumstances of carriage are substantially alike, is a small 
matter compared with the regulation in a country as exten- 
sive as this, where the transportation is subject to such variety 
of circumstances, and where differences in conditions of car- 
riage in the different sections are so striking and so peculiar. 
That which may be a simple task to a regulating commission 





LOCOMOTIVE 999, HOLDER OF THE WORLD’S SPEED RECORD 
Attained a speed of 112.5 miles an hour. 


Built by American Locomotive Company for New York Central R, R,; Exhibited at 
World’s Fair Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. 


in any other country is obviously a more complicated and 
difficult undertaking in the United States, and one that calls 
for ceaseless exercise of vigilance and exacting labor.” 
The Commission was quickly confronted with the diff- 
culty of establishing fair and equitable rates where the selfish 
interests of a majority of all shippers in the land were vitally 
engaged in getting the better of their competitors in special 
rates, service and privileges, and the carriers generally had no 
other alternative to granting preferences, except to lose the 
business. It was a case of if you won’t your competitor will. 
So what was a poor carrier to do? The poorer the carrier 
the harder to resist the pressure. But the necessities of the 
weaker roads reacted on the stronger, and the cut-throat game 
went on. The early ‘reports of the Commission, especially 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 299 





while Judge Cooley was at its head, are full of discussions of 
the principles underlying the classification of goods for rate- 
making purposes. In the fourth annual report, for instance, 
the whole subject is passed 
under review. Its importance 
justifies extended quotation, 
as follows: 

“The first step toward the 
imposition of rates for trans- 
portation of merchandise is a 
classification of the articles 
which, it is supposed, may be 
offered for carriage, and the Th ete Breent A, HL, Smith of the 
arranging of them into classes of Locomotive “999.” 
which are to bear different rates. In making the classification 
all the considerations that can properly bear upon it are sup- 
posed to be taken into account, and they are severally given 
such weight as the carrier believes it is proper to allow them 
under all the circumstances attending its own business, and 
all the business of the section, or of the interests that are 
served by his road. An important question always is, what 
is the probable cost of the carriage of the articles severally, 
and each is supposed to be so classed that the rate it would 
bear would be such as to cover this cost and also to afford 
some profit to the carrier. But this is only a general rule. 
There are many cases in which property may be expected to 
be offered for transportation, the weight of which, or the 








MOGUL OF 1892 
Built for Kymulga & Coosa River R. R. by the Lima Locomotive Works. 


256 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


bulk, is so out of proportion to its value that it cannot pos- 
sibly, if considered by itself, bear such charges for transpor- 
tation as will leave any profit to the carriers, and must conse- 
quently be carried at a rate that falls below the point of fair 
profit or not be carried at_all. 


“This well-known fact has led to the common saying that 
no traffic must be charged greater rates than it can bear— 
a saying intended to indicate the maximum, though often 
understood in quite an opposite sense. It is therefore found 
that in every classification many articles are so classified that 





RAILROAD OVER FLORIDA KEYS AND ISLANDS 
Florida East Coast Railway. 


the rates upon them will give to the carrier but very slight 
profit, and if the carrier were deliberately to refuse altogether 
to transport them the refusal might doubtless in some cases 
be justified if its own interest were exclusively to be con- 
sidered. But the considerations that determine the classifi- 
cation in such a case look beyond the particular article, and 
relieve what would be an oppressive and perhaps prohibitory 
burden by imposing some portion thereof upon other articles 
that can better afford to bear it. In every classification, there- 
fore, articles whose value is very great in proportion to the 
bulk or weight are classed high in expectation that the rates 
imposed upon them will pay not merely the cost of transpor- 
tation, and a fair profit to the carrier, but will contribute 
toward adequate remuneration for the transportation of such 
articles as cannot bear proportionate charges. Thus the cost 
of carriage to the carrier itself is no more a controlling consid- 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 257 


eration than is the value of the carriage to the owner of the 
property, and when both are taken into account questions of a 
puvlic character also have weight, inasmuch as it is important 
to make a great public agency reasonably profitable to its own- 
ers, and at the same time as useful as may be to the general 
public. : 

“This method of classification has been so long continued 
and so universal that every well-informed person in a com- 
munity understands that made, as it is, for the purposes of 





BALDWIN FAST PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE 
Built for Baltimore & Ohio R. R. in 1893. 


rating it is based upon an almost infinite variety of circum- 
stances having regard not merely to the interests of the car- 
ier and the value of the services but also to the interests of 
the parties and sections served and to considerations which 
may change from day to day so as to demand a change in the 
proportionate rating. * * * The carriers are entirely 
right in assuming, as they have done heretofore, that they 
best perform their duty to the public when they take into 
consideration in making their classification and in fixing their 
rates, not merely the question of cost to themselves and of 
value to the owner of the property carried but every con- 
sideration of a public nature which can fairly bear upon the 
question of public usefulness.” 


258 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Long and Short Hauls 


No subject involved in railway regulation demanded and 
received more patient and illuminating exposition by the 
Commission than that relating to the conflicting interests of 
long and short haul business. The statute declared: 

“Tt shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to 
the provisions of this Act to charge or receive any greater 
compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of pas- 
sengers or of the like kind of property under substantially 





PART OF AN OKLAHOMA COTTON TRAIN—1893 


similar circumstances and conditions for a shorter than for 
a longer distance over the same line in the same direction, 
the shorter being included in the longer distance.” 

In the fourth annual report (1890) this clause received the 
following clear elucidation: 

“The carriers by rail have so far made their rates and 
charges fairly proportional as between local and long haul 
traffic that the clause, if it ever worked injustice to them, does 
so no longer. Indeed as the general result is to give greater 
satisfaction to local communities without unjustly affecting 
the great centers of commerce the outcome cannot fail to be 
beneficial to the carriers themselves. Nothing is more de- 
sirable to any railroad than that its patrons shall be convinced 
that its rates are just, and they can never be made to believe 
this while the extraordinary differences in charge which were 
formerly in many cases as between the long and short haul 
traffic carried over the same line, are persisted in. Much 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 Zoe 


—_ 


of the complaint now made of the clause in question, with a 
view to affecting public sentiment, ignores altogether the fact 
that the prohibition of the greater charge for the shorter haul 
is very much qualified in the statute, and in respect to freights 
it is limited to those of a like kind carried over the same line 
in the same direction and under similar circumstances and 
conditions. A stranger to the law might infer, from some 
public addresses and pamphlets which have assumed to dis- 
cuss this subject, that the railroad companies were prohibited 








AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY ENGINE OF 1895 


Built for the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute R. R.—Weight loaded, Engine and 
Tender, 219,000 lbs. 


from carrying the necessities of life over long distances at 
very low rates unless their rates on other subjects of trans- 
portation for shorter distances were made to correspond. 
Indeed, instances have been pointed out in which it was said 
that certain articles of commerce could not now be trans- 
ported for long distances because by reason of this provision 
they would not bear the charges that must under compulsion 
of law be imposed upon them. Among such instances has 
been mentioned the granite industry of New England, as to 
which it has been said that valuable manufactories have ceased 
to be profitable because it has now become impossible for 
the properties to obtain from the railroad companies the nomi- 
nal rates for the transportation of their products which they 








260 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


formerly enjoyed, since it is now, by the long and short haul 
clause, made criminal for the companies to give such rates. 
A complaint of this nature is not to be met by argument, 
because it is baseless in point of fact. The instance men- 
tioned may safely be assumed to be chosen rather from regard 
to the needs of an attack upon the law than from any belief 
in the justice of its application. The prohibition of the fourth 
section, so far as concerns this article of commerce, or any 
other that can be named, will have no application whatever 
until it is made to appear that elsewhere upon the lines of the 
roads conveying it there is property of the same kind for 
transportation by the same carriers in the same direction, 
upon which the carriers are disposed to making greater 
charges in the aggregate for the shorter hauls. The wheat 
of the extreme West, it is also said, can no longer have the 
nominal rates which were formerly made for transportation 
to the seaboard, but this assertion is also without point or 
applicability unless it is shown that the carriers are not only 
disposed to give such rates but propose to make up the conse- 
quent losses to themselves by the imposition of greater 
charges in the aggregate for the carriage of the like grain 
when offered for carriage by growers in the States nearer to 
the seaboard. Nominal rates impartially made as between 
shippers of like articles in the same direction and under like 
circumstances and conditions are as admissible now as they 
ever mwere: 

_ “A law that does not prohibit an equal charge for the 
transportation of like articles for the longer distance would 
seem to be quite as liberal as could be asked for or desired, 
-provided the transportation in each case is under like circum- 
stances and conditions. And such is the law of the clause in 
question; the same charge may be made for the carriage of 
the like articles for 10 miles as for a thousand without a viola- 
tion of its terms.” 

Nothing could be clearer or more reasonable, and yet com- 
plaints under the fourth clause relating to long and short 
hauls have echoed and re-echoed in the courts and before the 
Commission from that day to this. 





SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 261 





Lions in the Way of Enforcing the Law 


The greatest obstacle that confronted the Commission in 
the enforcement of the law against discriminations, undue 
preferences, cutting of rates and rebates was the difficulty of 
getting evidence. This was particularly so where rival car- 
riers were involved. “This is especially the case,” says the 
‘ Commission, “when the prosecution is instituted for the giving 
of low rates, for, even when this is done unjustly and illegally, 
it, nevertheless, will have, or seem to have, the effect of favor- 





TRAIN ON HUMP FOR SWITCHING 


ing localities or important interests, and thereby it secures 
their approval and invites their support. A carrier who 
under such circumstances prosecutes, or who aids in prosecu- 
tion, does so at the risk, not merely of submitting itself to 
such annoyances and expense as commonly attend a criminal 
proceeding, but also of appearing in the eyes of an influential 
portion of those for whose favor all are competing, as the 
prosecutors of a rival whose real offense, whatever it may be 
nominally, consists in the fact that in the struggle for business 
it has been the more successful of the two, and for the com- 
mendable reason, if lawfully done, that it has conceded more 
to the demands of competition and been less severe in its 
exactions. The risk of arousing against themselves a preju- 
dice of this nature is one which the Commission shows the 
carriers are very slow to encounter.” 

In illustration of what the. carriers were “up against” in 
this regard, the Commission published the following portion 


262 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








of a letter it received from the general manager of one of the 
roads terminating in Chicago: 


“Referring to your complaint against railroad officials that they 
admit, state and charge that the published rates are cut in violation 
of the law, while at the same time fail and refuse to give any evidence 
to the Commission, I beg to say that it is true that we do make such 
charges and have information about cut rates that warrants us in 
making them; still we dare not use it with the Commission or in 
Court. The transportation of this country is handled by a compara- 
tively small number of persons who are.-all interested in getting the 
lowest rates possible and the greatest advantage over their competi- 
tors. These shippers we must depend upon for business, and if any 
railroad company or any railroad officials should go into Court or 
before the Commission with charges that such shippers are receiving 
favors from other railroad companies, it would result in that railroad 
company or the company represented by such officials being boycotted 
by the majority of the shippers. In other words, they do not want 
the law enforced so long as they get an advantage in its violation. 
ADRS te we hake Railroad Company and its officers desire that the 
interstate commerce law is enforced, but for reasons above given we 
dare not use the information we receive in various ways as to what is 
being done by our competitors and connections. Of course this in- 
formation is not in the nature of absolute proof, but it is in the nature 
of prices paid for commodities and the direction that traffic takes, 
which is not its natural channel. In some cases shippers state frankly 
that they are getting concessions, but of course do not divulge just 
how much, or how it is done, and even were we disposed to use the 
information we get I do not know that it would be competent 
evidence.” 


Here was a state of things involving carriers and shippers 
in every section of the country where competition was “the 
life of trade” as well as the theory of the Act to Regulate 
Commerce. Carriers and shippers who fain would obey the 
statute were driven willy-nilly into their only alternative of 
retaliation.in kind. Naturally the railways bore the brunt of 
public reprobation, while the shippers, who pocketed the profit 
of the illegal transaction, subscribed liberally to campaign 
funds and foreign missions and largely escaped criticism. 


_ The Effect on Railway Construction 


One of the untoward effects of the national assumption 
of its right to regulate the railroads was the brake it put on 
railroad construction. Where this had been proceeding at 
the rate of 6,500 miles of new line per year over a ten-year 
period, it dropped to an average of about 3,600 in the next 
decade. Where railway building had been anticipating popu- 
lation, it was restricted to the current needs of the people of 


SHVEN DH DECADE,” 1890-1900 263 





the United States. The returns show that there was little 
variation in the averages in inhabitants per mile of line be- 
tween 1890 and 1910, and since that year population has been 
outstripping railway construction. 

Commenting on this condition in his report of 1893, Pro- 
fessor Adams, the official statistician, said: 

“When it is noticed that the increase of railway mileage 
was 4,897, it at once becomes apparent that the tendency 





BALDWIN 1896 FOR THE ATLANTIC CITY R. R. 
Used in high speed passenger service. One of fastest locomotives ever built. 


toward merger, consolidation, lease, traffic agreement and 
the like is relatively stronger. than the tendency towards 
railway construction.” 


The World’s Fair and Panic of 1893 


Under the impetus of the Columbian Exposition held at 
Chicago in 1893, railway traffic reached its highest record 
up to that time. The story of this accomplishment is briefly 
told in the returns for the four years that included that won- 
derful quadricentennal of the discovery of America: 


Passengers Freight Tons 
Carried 1 Mile. Carried 1 Mile. 
POO ee COCA yc. es 13,362,898 ,299 88,241,050,225 
LOOG eens PA Cr Sats 14,229,101,084 93,588,111,833 
Holl APL eee ee eee 14,289,445,893 80,335,104,702 


East he decce Gs sate Po a 12,188,446,271 85,227,515,891 


264 HISTORY OF AMERICAN KALLWAYLS 


For the full meaning of these figures it is necessary to 
remember that they relate to the fiscal year ending June 30 
in each case. This threw the heavy attendance at the World’s 
Fair from July 1 into the 1894 returns, accounting for the 
large passenger traffic of that year, whereas the freight traf- 
fic, which had no unusual stimulus in that year, felt the full 
force of the depression that paralyzed business in the fall of 
1893 and dropped thirteen billion ton miles, or over 14 per 
cent. This represented a loss of $129,562,948 in revenue from 
freight alone. Notwithstanding the increase in passenger 
mileage in 1894, there was a loss of $16,142,258 in passenger 
revenue due to the reduction in receipts per passenger mile 
from 2.108 cents in 1893 to 1.986 cents in 1894. 

The average receipts per ton oe also showed a decline 
from .878 to .860 cent. 

Thus in every way the railways were made to feel the 
effects of the financial storm that swept no less than 119 com- 
panies, operating nearly 28,000 miles of line and representing 
over two billions of capital, into receiverships. Among the 
important roads that took refuge in the courts from the panic 
of 1893 to 1896 were the following: 


Miles ; 

Owned. Stock. Bonds. 
ALCHISOn,.1 Opeka: & oanta Pe.w..).) 2 4,438 $102,000,000 $228,082,000 
Baltic wo i0, ewes Fa ee Sod 30,000,000 80,797,000 
Pade (Dia PIP CACIN fea. ae he tees ee 337 41,227,362 160,820,009 
NWortolk ea: Westerns. cls mate ee ea27. 59,500,000 57,669,529 
DIGTEeii hE aclic: cota e an ote ae eee Paes 84,238,347 . 132,376,500 
Wirsconein® Central ic: aiciai i Bes ic lady 685 11,435,500 10,631,009 
UR iyH we PCC us Woks pie eto er eee 1,830 60,868,500 85,492,185 
New York “& New England”. .273).2 360 23,817,600 17,106,373 
New York, Lake Erie & Western .... 543 86,373,600 81,537,168 
Toledos/st.) Louis c&.. KansasaGity:. 2. & 450 17,055,000 10,000,000 
Bape. t ear awoyY adkin Valley... eS 329 1,972,900 4,922,700 
Central RoR: Banke’ Co. of tsa... lz 7,500,000 26,574,000 
Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern... 351 9,726,000 11,002,628 


Note should be made that these figures do not include the 
operated mileage of the roads named. 
clude the capitalization of the subsidiary or leased roads of 


the several systems. 


Neither do they in- — 


It may be of assistance to the student to give concrete 
illustration of the general process through which these rail. 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 265 





ways went through their sea of receivership troubles to the 
ground of net profits by which alone they can succeed. 
In the first place, the receiverships of 1893-96 followed the 
long drain of declining rates as night follows the declining 
sun. Take the Atchison, Fopeka & Santa Fe, for example. 
Between 1884 and 1894 its average passenger receipts per 
mile fell from 2.648 cents to 2.264, and its average freight 
receipts from 1.882 to 1.191 cents. To those unfamiliar with 
such units it may be explained that on the 385,000,000 pas- 
sengers carried one mile the decline of .384 cent cost the 
railway nearly $1,500,000 in 1893, and on the 2,418,000,000 
tonsi-ot ireight carried one mile the decline of .691 cent cost 
the railway over $16,000,000. No business on earth can stand 
up under such a continuous depletion of its resources—for 
fares and rates are the only resources available to a common 
carrier wherewith to pay wages and other operating expenses, 
taxes and a fair return on invested capital. 

So much for how the Atchison got into a receivership in 
1893. When it went into the hands of the court its funded 
debt was $228,082,000 and its capital stock $102,000,000. In 
the reorganization that followed the foreclosure sale Decem- 


a 


ber 10, 1895, its funded debt had been scaled down to 


$162,278,050 and its capital stock increased to $213,468,000, 
The increase in stock was accounted for by the issue of 
$111,486,000 preferred stock to the holders of old second mort- 
gage bonds amounting to over $90,000,000, on payment of a 
4 per cent assessment, and as a bonus to holders of the orig- 
inal stock on whom an assessment of $10 a share was levied. 
As shares in the old company, for which par had originally 
been paid, were worth only $13 at the date of reorganization, 
it required faith to pay the $10 assessment necessary to hold 
on. It was 1899 before a 2% per cent dividend was declared 
on the preferred stock, and 1901 before a 1% per cent divi- 
dend was paid on common stock. 

The reader should take note of the preponderance of capi- 
tal stock over funded debt in this readjustment. It is in the 
proportion of almost 3 to 2 over funded debt and something 


266 HISTORY OF AMERICAN |\RAILWAYS 





like a proportion of 6 to 5 has been maintained to this day. 
But it was the men, not the money, that saved and made this 
great continental line. Aldace F. Walker, who was one of 
the original Interstate Commerce Commissioners, after acting 
as one of the Santa Fe receivers, was chosen as Chairman 
of the Board and, more important still, the Board of Directors 
selected Edward P. Ripley as President and vested in him 
almost despotic authority over the management of the prop- 
erty. If ever there was an instance of a beneficent despotism, 
it was the rule of Mr. Ripley over the Santa Fe from 1895 to 
his death in harness, in 1920. 

Other roads went through the deep waters in 1893-96, 
from which many emerged with lightened burdens and strong- 
er organizations. But they were not all through with receiver- 
ships, as the next chapter will tell. 

A chapter could be written on the prevision necessary to 
the choice of a site for passenger and freight depots in well 
established communities. In the west the railways generally 
selected the most convenient location for themselves, and let 
the communities come up to them. In the east the railways 
had to take what city councils and township trustees and cost 
per siront foot permitted: The experience, of Philadermii. 
with its great rail transportation agency, illustrates this fea- 
ture of railway progress. It was 1858 before the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad had a real passenger station to its name in 
Philadelphia. This was located way over on the West Side, 
with a small ticket office at Eleventh and Market. Its next 
passenger station was erected on Market Street west of the 
river in October, 1864. In 1876 the approach of the Centen- 
nial Exposition spurred the railway officials to the erection of 
a new station on Market Street and Lancaster Avenue, west 
of the tunnel junction that was to accommodate not only the 
Independence multitudes but any crowds that might visit 
Philadelphia in the next generation. “But,” says the historian, 
“it only required a few years’ experience to demonstrate that 
the West Philadelphia Passenger Station was too small and 
wrongly placed.” 


chicky gta yy RENE 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 267 


Then they built them a larger and finer station between 
Broad and Fifteenth Streets, extending south from Filbert 
Street, which was opened for use in December 1881. Before 





BROAD STREET STATION, PHILADELPHIA, 1894 


1894 expanding business called for the extension of this sta-. 
tion into what is now known as the “Broad Street Station,” 
illustrated herewith, whose days are reported numbered as 
this is written. 

Verily one generation of railway builders cannot foresee 
what the next generation of railway users will demand. 

When the decade 1890-1900 closed, the American people 
had at their disposal a transportation plant that may be sum- 
marized as follows: 


Wile SmOTTitiait Mitre) See. yo. eels oe Sri bias 192,556 
NMPESHOTEGOCOTLOSELACK iar occas te coe a 12,651 
Md SeOt at Har deutra Glos? vik San eee et a 1,094 
Miles=ot toutthy and other track) 2-4 Oks... 829 
Mileetot-vard. track and Siding seer al Aten. 52-153 
MiteseO tea etEACKS Rd tt can. ceo. BN ta ae 258,784 


IFOCOUIGIIVC Sime tas ator, Ka es Phir ee Ce ak a Mes 37,663 


268 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








Passenvere cats. jie Sipe ee ee eee 34,713 
Preight cars ee ce ee ee ee 1,365,541 
Company cars*s See or eee 50,594 
Netheapitalizationsc $ oe: aor ee ee $9,547 ,984,611 
Net capitalization per mile of line.....7.... 51,0 

Net ‘capitalization: per mulevot track. .....-:; 36,895 


At the opening of the decade the equipment of rolling 
stock with train brakes and automatic couplers was in its 
infancy. By 1900 practically the entire equipment was fitted 
with the automatic coupler and 67 per cent was fitted with 
train brakes. This transformation alone must have entailed 
an expenditure of from three to four hundred million dollars, 
or nearly enough to duplicate the entire locomotive equip- 


ment of 1900. 


Small Return on Invested Capital 


In the face of the scriptural injunctions, new and old, that 
say, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,” 
and “‘the laborer is worthy of his reward,” railway regulation 
in America has inherited the popular disposition to muzzle 
the railways that literally tread out the corn for nourishment 
of the people. At no time in their history has the muzzle 
been loosened from the mouth of American railways, so that 
they could partake freely of the fruits of their labors, 

Since 1890 the Commission has presented an annual re- 
. sumé of the average return in dividends and interest -on the 
capital invested in American railways. As this seldom finds 
its way into the public prints, the student may be interested 
in what it shows as to the per cent of actual return on capitai 
stock at the beginning and close of the seventh American 
railway decade: 


1890. 1900. 
hota Gapital tock) 4.828 os $4,409,658,485 $5,545,579,593 

Per Cent Per Cent 
Paying | Paying 

Dividends Paid. Dividends. Dividends. 
Notiiitatpaid ic sane eee 63.76 54.34 
Brome isto? percent: sa. 2.08 ag 
From. 2 to* 3: percent ... .~ 1.50 1.81 
From. 3 to.; 4 per-cent ..4. 2.89 6.10 
From 4to 5 per cent.... 8.26 14.56 
From 5to 6percent.... 6.69 6.93 


Brom “Gato. / percetit’...- 6.53 4.29 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 269 














Brotnyt 7, tO oper cent... 3.78 6.40 
PromesotO as percent... 2.40 1.78 
From 9 to 10 per cent .... 35 .08 
From 10 per ct. and upwards 1.76 1.44 

PLO tal tates. Peete ett 100.00 100.00 


It will be perceived that in 1890 85.18 per cent of all rail- 
way capital paid less than 6 per cent and in 1900, a more pros- 
perous year, 86.01 per cent paid less than that dividend. The 
marked difference in the two years was in the amount of 
stock that paid nothing and that paid from 4 to 5 per cent. 


When it comes to interest paid on funded debt, amounting 
in 1900 to $5,585,147,047, no less than 87.29 per cent paid 
less than 6 per cent. Of this G78 per cent paid nothing. The 
largest percentage was 32.82 paying from 4 to 5 per cent. No 
less than 71.46 per cent of the funded debt paid between 3 
and 6 per cent interest. 

The return on the capital invested in American railways 
has never been a burden on American internal commerce. 


How the Union Pacific Was Rebuilt 


This decade closed with the practical reconstruction of the 
Union Pacific after the reorganization that followed the re- 
ceivership in 1893. In this there came to the surface of rail- 
way affairs a new and compelling constructive human force 
in the person of Edward H. Harriman. The romance of the 
spectacular building of the Union Pacific in a race with the 
construction of the Central Pacific in the 60s was succeeded 
by thirty years of alternating periods of plenty and drought, 
during which, between 1880 and 1890, the able administra- 
tion of Charles Francis Adams did not prove equal to the task 
of stemming the current of adverse balances. Mr. Adams 
made an heroic struggle against adverse circumstances, but 
unfortunately, as he confesses in his autobiography, “lacked 
the cleancut firmness” to wring success from heavy odds. 
When Mr. Adams resigned, in 1892, the road was confronted 
with the maturity of the Government loan in 1895, and so 
in the shadow of the financial panic of 1893 it sought shelter 
from its pressing embarrassments in the hands of a receiver. 


270 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








After various combinations, including one to which J. Pier- 
pont Morgan was a party, had tried and failed to effect a 
reorganization, a syndicate headed by Kuhn, Loeb & Com- 
pany undertook the heavy task. But not until they were 
joined by Mr. Harriman did they make much headway. He 
with the backing of the Illinois Central, in which he had 
earned his railroad spurs, brought to the syndicate the in- 
domitable spirit of personal faith and initiative that has always 
accompanied the railway miracles on this continent. 


The syndicate found the Union Pacific stripped of the un- 
profitable parasites and feeders that had sapped its immature 
resources, and it acquired the property by assuming liabilities 
amounting to over $81,000,000, of which $58,448,223 had to be 
paid to the Government in full satisfaction of its claims for 
original advances. Thus was extinguished the debt for guar- 
anteed bonds with interest that had hung over the enterprise 
from its inception. The syndicate also took over the unsold 
and practically unsalable balance of the land grants. The 
road was in poor physical condition and lacked proper equip- 
ment when, on January 1, 1898, it was handed over by the 
receivers to its new owners. In May following Mr. Harri- 
man was elected chairman of the executive committee and 
from that day the dust of reconstruction never ceased to fly 
on the Union Pacific. After a hurried inspection, in which, 
like Rudyard Kipling in other fields, nothing escaped his 
photographic eye, Mr. Harriman telegraphed a request for 
$25,000,000 as a starter in rehabilitation of road and equip- 
ment. He followed up his wire in person and succeeded in 
persuading his directors into making the unusual outlay. 


How he employed that $25,000,000 in part is worth telling 
in the picturesque language of Frank H. Spearman, whose 
basic facts are attested by Chief Engineer Berry, who was 
in charge of the work: 

“Tt is not perhaps generally understood,” says this author, 
“that the highest barrier presented to the Union Pacific on 
its transcontinental run lies immediately west of the plains 
about Cheyenne, where the line strikes that secondary range 


SEVENTH-DECADE, 1890-1900 z/1 





of the Rockies known as the Black Hills. What makes the 
ascent of these hills of especial difficulty is a great elevation 
coupled with unusually short slopes. Just here, at the out- 
set almost, the Union Pacific rises to its greatest height above 
the sea, and here, in the rebuilding lay the problem before 
Berry, chief engineer, as to how the grade of this granite 
summit might possibly be reduced. New limits had been 
set to the gradients of the proposed improvements; but it is 
one thing in a directors’ meeting to adopt a grade over the 
Rockies of forty-three feet to the mile, and quite another to 
Pouinros tne. Rockies and run it. «lhe; chief engineers hadvte 
match his wits against those of engineers who, a generation 
before, had laid out the pioneer line and done it well. Thirty- 
five years of reflection, observation and criticism from the 
best constructionists in the world had failed to develop flaws 
in this earliest effort to bridge the Rockies. * * * 


“To find the line that Berry determined he must have, 
he sent good men into the hills, only to be told that where 
he wanted a line there was none. But when they tried to 
maintain this, the personal equation, that subtle and incal- 
culable factor in men which, in the overcoming of difficulties, 
makes the slight difference between success and failure, inter- 
vened. The chief engineer, undaunted, refused to abide by 
the findings. He sent the engineers again; the second time 
they brought the line he knew must be there. It involved 
staggering estimates. The Dale Creek crossing, just beyond 
Cheyenne, called for a single fill nine hundred feet long and 
one hundred and thirty feet deep. In these granite wastes 
the engineering figures assumed at once unheard of propor- 
tions. Cubic yards went into the calculations in millions 
instead of thousands. Two creek crossings called for eight 
hundred thousand yards of embankment. Two miles of new 
line required the moving of seventeen hundred thousand 
yards of material, and of this three hundred thousand were 
solid rock. Two fills, within these two miles, swallowed a 
million cubic yards. To eliminate three heavy reverse curves 
and two bridges, a summit cut was required eighty feet dee 


Lis HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 











and a thousand feet long. The springing charge for a single 
cone of rock was a thousand pounds of giant powder, and 
the mountain was hurled into the cafion with twenty thou- 
sand pounds of black. For these unprecedented level- 
ings of the continental summit new devices were constantly 
brought into play. Time was an essence of the undertaking, 
and the American contractor, following loyally the Americana 
enginer, as he has always followed him, stooped like an Atlas 
and took upon his shoulders the burdens of the plans. 


“Grading machines and dump wagons were sent into the 
hills in train loads. Steam shovels, the leviathans of the 
railroad camp, crossed the mountains in processions. ‘They 
scooped the borrow-pits, cut the shale from the tunnels, dug 
the Sherman ballast and loaded, even blasted, granite upon 
cars out of the rock cuts. Track laying machines flung out 
rails on one side and ties on the other, like sandwiches. At 
one of the vital points Chicago men took the heavy work, and 
in order to make a three hundred thousand-yard fill with an 
embankment of one hundred and thirty-eight feet, MacAr- 
thur, to complete his contract on time, threw his own tempo- 
rary suspension bridge across the thousand-foot cafion, and 
ran his dump-cars upon his own rails and cables. Track 
laying—ballasting even—was pushed across the Rockies in 
midwinter. At the summit the last hill was drilled and a 
tunnel eighteen hundred feet long was put through primitive 
‘granite. Here the Harriman engineers scaled two hundred 
and forty-seven feet off the highst elevation at which the road 
had formerly crossed the continent; then came the task of 
getting gracefully down the western slope of the hills to the 
isranue. plains...) ees 


“The whole road, from its eastern approach to the Black 
Hills far out to Medicine Bow on the Laramie plains, shows 
everywhere the chisel and straight edge of the Harriman 
engineers. There are but two pieces of track—both of them 
very short—on the entire main line where the forty-three-foot 
grade is exceeded. Curvature had to go with the heavy 
grades, and between the Black Hills and the Wasatch Range 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 273 


seven thousand degrees gradually disappeared. At one point 
the new line, within a distance of four miles, crosses the old 
one seven times. 


“The Hanna cut uncovered an eight-foot seam of coal; 
a Green River cut revealed wide deposits of petrified fish. 
First and last the contractors uncovered a little of everything 
in the Rockies, from oil pockets to underground rivers; but 
in the Wasatch Range, in boring a six thousand-foot tunnel, 
they struck a mountain that for startling developments broke 
the records in the annals of American engineering. It was _ 
here that the underground stream was encountered; but this 
was a mere incident among the possibilities in the mountain. 
The formation is carboniferous, thrown up in the Aspen Ridge 
at an angle of twenty-five degrees, and it includes shales, 
sandstone, oil and coal. To bore a hole through the mountain 
at a depth of four hundred and fifty feet from the highest 
point was not difficult; but the curious thing was that after 
being bored the hole would not stay straight. The moun- 
tain, reversing every metaphor and simile of stability, refused 
to remain in the same position for two days together. It 
moved forcibly into the bore from the right side, and then 
stole quietly in from the left; it descended on the tunnel with 
crushing force from above, and rose irresistibly up into it 
from below. The mountain moved from every spot of the 
compass, and from quarters hardly covered by the compass. 
Workmen grew superstitious and engineers stood nonplussed. 
Starting in huge cleavage planes, the shale became at times 
absolutely uncontrollable. Wall plates, well fastened into 
regular alignment at night, looked in the morning as if giants 
had twisted them. Twelve-by-twelve hard pine timbers, laid 
skin to skin in the tunnel, were snapped like matches by this 
mysterious pressure. Engineers are on record as stating that 
in the Aspen tunnel such construction timbers were broken 
in different. directions within a distance of four feet. An 
engineer stood one day in the tunnel on a solid floor of these 
timbers, when under him and for a distance of two hundred 
feet ahead of him the floor rose, straining and cracking, three 


274 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





feet into the air. Before the tunnel could be finished it he- 
came necessary to line over seven hundred feet of it with a 
heavy steel and concrete construction.” 

Differing in degree, according to the topography of the 
territory and traffic involved, the work of reconstructing the 
hastily built mileage of American railways has been prose- 
cuted from the laying of the first rail in Baltimore to the 
present day with the untiring energy and unstinted expendi- 
ture of money and brains that has made them leaders in the 
transportation world. They closed the three-quarters of a 
century of railway progress on this continent with 192,556 | 
miles of line and 258,754 miles of all track. In other words, 
American railways ended the 19th century with enough miles 
of track to encompass the earth ten times. 


Reorganization of Southern Lines 


This decade also witnessed a reorganization and consoli- 
dation of minor roads south of Mason & Dixon’s line that 
was more or less reminiscent of the process by which the 
New York Central assimilated the several links in its line from 
New York to Chicago. The great difference between the 
two processes was that, while the northern combination was 
made up of solvent parts, the southern enterprise gathered 
its parts from the wrecks of 1893 and succeeded in welding 
them into several of the great trunk lines of the Union. 

When the Richmond & Danville Railroad was purchased 
at foreclosure sale on June 18, 1894, by the Southern Railway 
Company, freshly organized for that purpose, it was operating 
a perfect network of minor companies stretching from Wash- 
ington, D. C., to the Mississippi at Greenville. There were 
some thirty separate organizations represented in its 3,357 
miles of line, operated on pretty much every description of 
ownership, lease or control. The Richmond & Danville itself 
was one of the pioneer roads of the South whose organization 
tan back to 1847. 

In swift succession the Southern Railway acquired at 
foreclosure sales the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta Railroad; 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900- e/3 





the Columbia & Greenville Railroad; the important East 
Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway (operating 1,265 
miles); the Georgia Pacific Railway and numerous other 
lines, so that by September 1, 1894, it was operating 4,429. 
miles right in the center of what may be called the Old South. 
Since then it has been gathering into its fold by purchase, 
lease, control of stock, etc., a host of other roads whose roll 
call includes more than half a hundred corporate names, oper- 
ating a total of over 7,000 miles. 


Another consolidation or amalgamation of independent 
odds and ends of roads going back to the beginning of things 
in the South is the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Its seed- 
eiaumeanmbewtraced to the Petersburg. “Railroad” Company, 
chartered in 1830 and opened, 60 miles, to Weldon, North 
Carolina, in 1833 and to the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad, 
chartered in 1834 and opened in 1835. The title, Atlantic 
Coast Line, without any details of organization, first appears 
in Poor's Manual for 1889. In that year a holding company 
of the same name was incorporated in Connecticut. The 
nucleus of the present system makes its first appearance in 
official statistics for 1888 under the title of the Atlantic Coast 
Association, with a total operated mileage of 837, assembled 
from no less than thirteen distinct companies, of which the 
chief was the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, with 319 miles. 
The last road traced its genesis back to 1835. 

By 1902, through various consolidations and some original 
construction, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad found itself 
operating 3,589 miles of line and had arranged for the pur- 
chase of a majority of the stock of the Louisville & Nashville 
Railroad, which, from a charter running back to 1850, was at 
that time operating 3,444 miles of line. The Louisville & 
Nashville had previously acquired a majority of the stock of 
the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. So by 1904 
these associated roads operated well over nine thousand miles. 

Concurrent with these consolidations, and by much the 
same process of natural selection and amalgamation, came 
the organization of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900, 


276 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





tracing its ancestry and name back to the Seaboard & Roan- 
oke Railroad (1832), with its seaboard terminal at Ports- 
mouth. Through this and subsequent reorganizations the 
Seaboard Air Line acquired operating control over 3,576 miles 
ofsline.in’ 1922) 

By natural selection, the four trunk lines named—the 
Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Louisville & Nash- 














UNION STATION, ST. LOUIS, MO, OPENED SEPT, 1, 1894 


ville and the Seaboard Air Line—all tracing their charter 
rights back to the beginning of railway things in the South, 
as well as in the Republic, almost engross the transportation 
system in the Southern States. Together they operate nearly 
20,000 miles of line and have come through the trying vicissi- 
tudes of panics, the Civil War and Federal control with a 
remarkable record of service and substantial success. 


St. Louis Terminal Facilities 


Through its Terminal Railroad Association, since 1894 St. 
Louis has boasted one of the largest and most complete 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 ay 








terminal systems in America, for which even greater prece- 
dence was claimed until quite recently. Fifteen trunk lines 
co-operate in the responsibility and management of the Asso- 
ciation. How comprehensive it is in design and accomplish- 
ment may be judged from the facilities it affords for handling 
all branches of railway traffic. It comprises what for many 


ol Ht 


=a 




























































——— 


SS 





































Os ——— SEZ Ze 
= ————— Se 
= he - F ‘ 
> S ae 7, 
y ay y fi 
‘ — = “i / 7 
xs * = ‘N , / | M, yf 
ia G fii y 


TRACK LAYOUT, UNION STATION, ST. LOUIS 


years was the most modern union passenger station in the 
country, used by all lines entering St. Louis. With two 
bridges spanning the Mississippi, these radiated to every part 
of the Union. The provision for handling freight was equally 
comprehensive, including three river docks. The general 
character of the St. Louis terminal may be seen in the accom- 
panying cuts of the Union Passenger Station and layout of 
tracks. 


278 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








Baggage 


In no one respect is the superiority, or rather the liberality, 
of American railway practice better shown than in the way 
baggage is handled here compared with its treatment in for- 
eign countries. Here it is made an object of, special consid- 
eration at the carrier’s risk, special cars are provided for it 
and an elaborate system of checks follows it from station 





CONSTRUCTION OF TRAIN SHED, ST. LOUIS UNION STATION 


of departure to station of destination, and even from private 
residence or hotel in one city to private residence or hotel 
3,000 miles away, and without extra railway charge unless 
the baggage exceeds 150 pounds. 

In England and Europe how different. There the safest 
thing to do with a trunk that weighs over 150 pounds, the 
point at which the excess baggage charge begins in America, 
is to send it by express. In England the ‘charge for -100 
pounds for less than 50 miles is 50 cents; between 50 miles 
and 150 miles, $1.00; between 150 and 300 miles, $1.50, and 
above 300 miles $2.00 per 100 miles. Moreover, the traveler 
has to see that his “luggage,” as they call baggage in Eng- 
land, is put in the right “van” as it is called there. These high 
rates and considerations account for the large amount of hand 
“luggage,” suitcases, satchels, carry-alls, Gladstone bags, 
rugs, etc., with which the typical English traveler preempts 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 279 





all available space and racks in passenger cars. If he has 
anything left that necessitates taking a trunk along, he has 
to identify it at every station, terminal or change of trains. 
On the continent of Europe, the excess baggage charge begins 
at 55 pounds and the conditions of shipping baggage and 
identifying it are even more vexatious. 





GRAND HALL, UNION STATION, ST, LOUIS, OPENING NIGHT 
—Flashlight Photograph by Atwater. 


Exactly when the baggage car as a distinctive unit of 
passenger train equipment was introduced on American rail- 
ways has not been definitely settled, but it is generally cred- 
ited to the Baltimore & Ohio road within the first decade of 
its history. At first it was little more than a box freight car 
impressed into the passenger service to carry mail and bag- 
gage. Next a passenger car was divided into two sections, 
one-half with seats for second class passengers or as a smoker, 
and the other end for’ mail; express and baggage. A little 
wood cut in the Great Railway Celebration of 1857 shows a 


380 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


typical baggage car in its proper place in a train of four cars 
on the Little Miami Railroad. Where the baggage car of 
these early days cost from $1,000 to $1,500, by 1920 the cost 
of a modern steel baggage car had risen to over $12,000, 
while post office cars of similar construction cost from $20,000 
to $25,000 apiece. The artist evidently considered the rearing stal- 
lion in the foreground the chief feature of his landscape. Many 
years were to elapse before the spirited animals took kindly to the 
snorting iron horse. 


fa maen 





A VIEW OF PENDLETON, 


‘Two Mites From CINCINNATI, AND THE-OuTER StTaTION oF THE LitrLE Miami Rarzroap. 


It has been estimated that the railways of the United 
States handle in excess of 150,000,000 pieces of baggage annu- 
-ally of an aggregate value of over $30,000,000,000, which is 
credible when it is considered that the better class of trunks 
that endure the strong arm attentions of the express and 
baggage man cost from $50 apiece and upwards. Their con- 
tents are often insured for $200 and upwards. The typical 
Saratoga trunk has given way to the innovation model, but 
the sample trunk of the average traveling salesman still main- 
tains its competition with the mail order store, which has 
necessitated the running of mail freight trains on passenger 
schedule. The parcel post business has made freight cars 
out of $20,000 postal cars running on passenger schedules. 


SEVENTH DECADE, 1890-1900 281 


The handling of baggage at our great central stations in 
the summer season has reached colossal proportions, and only 
the adoption of the most systematic methods and mechanical 
assistance renders it reasonably efficient. When the vast 
number and weight of the pieces to be moved with haste and 
accuracy is considered, the proportion misrouted, delayed, 
lost and damaged is so relatively small as to be insignificant. 


The South Boston Station 


Near the close of this decade, five roads entering Boston 
from the south and west united for the construction and 
operation of a station that should accommodate their passen- 
ger traffic. The new station is located at the corner of Sum- 
ner Street and Atlantic Avenue and is owned by the New 
York, New Haven & Hartford, the Boston & Albany, the 
Boston & Providence, the New England R. R. Co. and the 








“NEW (1898) SOUTH BOSTON STATION” 


Old Colony roads, the last three being leased to the New 
Haven. The Boston & Maine, Maine Central, Bangor & Aroo- 
stook and their New England connections entering Boston 
from the North and West are served by the North Boston 
Station at the other end of the city. | 
The area of the station is about 35 acres; the train | 
shed is 568 feet wide by 720 feet in length, and covers 28 , 
tracks with a substation for 4 additional tracks. The length | 
of 28 main tracks is 3.58 miles; sidings and yard tracks, 12.46 


Z02h 0 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





APPROACH TO SOUTH STATION, BOSTON, MASS. 
Note the numerous block signals. 


miles; total track, 16.04 miles:') The photograph gives a good 
idea of the signal system necessary to the operation of this 
station. 


A Santa Fe Train on Stilts 





BRIDGE OVER CANYON DIABLO, ARIZ, 


CHAPTER IX 
EIGHTH DECADE—1900-1910 


REGULATION BrEcoMES MorE STRINGENT. REBATES FINALLY 
SUPPRESSED. COMMERCIAL VALUATION OF 1904. THE 
COMMISSION. GETS» AUTHORITY “To Fix. Rates, i-barrH- 
QUAKES AND FLoops 


ITH the opening of the 20th century the whole char- 

acter of this narrative changes from a historical review 
leeratlway “progress to a 
record of contemporaneous 
events. Regulation, which 
had found the railways prac- 
tically free agents prior to 
1887, had gradually gathered 
the reins of administration 
into its hands. From a sort 
of benevolent supervision of 





: GROWTH IN DIMENSIONS OF 
. railway affairs through the PASSENGER CAR 


1880-1905 
adoption of a uniform system 


of accounting; hearing complaints of discrimination in rates 
and fares and of undue preferences to individuals and cor- 
porations; and from pronouncing many tariffs unjust and 
unreasonable, the Commission had become the central arbiter 
of American transportation affairs. It lacked only authority 
to name just and reasonable rates in place of those it found 
unjust and unreasonable. And this was coming with that 
certainty that seldom fails the legislative applicant who knows 
what he wants and will not be satisfied until he gets it. The 
Commission knew what it wanted. The shippers knew what 
they wanted. Congress knew what both wanted. So it was 
only a question of persistent importunity when the authority 
to fix rates passed from the carriers to the Commission. 
Between the passage of the original Interstate Commerce 
Act, in 1887, and 1900 the field of the Commission’s super- 


284 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


vision had undergone a most remarkable expansion, as the 
following figures show: 





Increase 

1890 1900 per cent 
Milesvatasiiplemtrackaes a. Seis Soe 156,404 192,556 2.1 
Miles Oruati xiary ciracke. <vcaes ae 9.761 14,074 + 441 
Milescof “yatd track@andi Sidings. 2) ae S71 52,154 54.7 
Miles? Gtealls- tracks “1. cumeaes. «4 cee 199,876 258,784 29.5 
Number “of jocomotivesta =...) ee 29,036 37,663 29.7 
Number ole passenger: Cars, ou. fun en 24,586 34,713 41.2 
Ntimmber Gfedreighti carsis accent ee 829,885 1,365,531 64.5 


The figures in this statement that are especially worthy 
of the student’s attention are those showing the growth of the 
auxiliary track and yard track and sidings of 44.1 and 54.7 
per cent, respectively. These percentages are significant of 





THE LUCIN CUT-OFF OVER GREAT SALT LAKE 
Costing Millions and Saving More 


the intensive development of railway facilities that has been 
characteristic of American railways in recent years. Where 
conditions did not invite extensions into new territory that 
needed railways without the traffic to support them, the de- 
mand for transport facilities along established lines encour- 
aged the laying of double tracks and sidings in the more 
settled portions of the country. Money was withheld from 
the stockholders in millions and put back into side tracks, 
reduced grades and realignments. 

A like condition checked the numerical increase of rolling 
stock. It will be observed that the increase in the number 
of locomotives in the above statement was practically identi- 
cal with the increase in miles of all tracks. Taken alone this 
would not have sufficed to move the concurrent increase of 
85 per cent in freight ton mileage and 35 per cent in passenger 
mileage. This phenomenon was accounted for by an increase 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 285 


of at least 40 per cent in the capacity of the engines and 65 
per cent in the capacity of freight cars. The exact percent- 
ages are not available because the weight and capacity of 
rolling stock was not officially reported prior to 1902. The 
percentage given are conservative estimates. 


The railways entered the new century with their average 
receipts both for freight and passengers at the low level of 





UNLOADING LAKE VESSELS INTO RAILWAY CARS. 


7.24 mills per ton mile and 1.978 cent per passenger mile. The 
attempt of the carriers to readjust these rates to their mount- 
ing expenses in 1900 precipitated the agitation to give the 
Commission power not only to declare rates unjust and un- 
reasonable but to prescribe what rates should be substituted 
for them. This agitation once begun, bequeathed from Con- 
gress to Congress, was not permitted to falter until the 
authority was granted by Congress by the Hepburn bill in 
1906, which will be considered in its place. 

The so-called Elkins amendment to the Commerce Act 
of February 19, 1903, clarified and strengthened its provisions 
forbidding special rates, rebates, drawbacks or other device 
granting undue preference to any individual or species of 
traffic. By it the publication of tariffs was required in all 
cases and any practice on the part of the carriers whereby any 
property by any device whatever was transported at a less 
rate than that named in the tariffs was prohibited under 
severe penalty. 


286 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ALL STEEL POSTAL CAR—UNION PACIFIC 


While this legislation bore the name of Senator Elkins, it 
was really the consummation of the efforts of railway execu- 
tives under the leadership of President Cassatt of the Penn- 
sylvania to root up the demoralizing and destructive prac- 
tices that threatened towinvolve the entire transportation 
system in disgrace and disaster. The struggle for competi- 








INTERIOR STEEL POSTAL CAR—UNION PACIFIC 


EIGHTH. DECADE, 1900-1910 287 





tive traffic had forced down the rates paid. to a point where 
none but the strongest companies could earn a living profit. 
Agreements to maintain rates were the veriest scraps of 
paper. There was practically no limit to the rebates extorted 
by the shippers under threat of diverting traffic. The bigger 
the shipper the larger the rebate. The word “rebate” as 
applied to the secret return of a percentage of the freight 








MISSOURI PACIFIC ENGINE OF 1902 
Built by American Locomotive Co. 


charge is a happy term for an odious practice in that the true 
word is derived from the French rabattre, to beat down. It 
literally beat down the railways and smaller competitors. 
The rebate on freight charges bred discrimination and undue 
preferences in their most insidious and corrupting form. And, 
while many large industries prospered by the nefarious prac- 
tice, the railways, in common with more numerous smaller 
shippers, suffered proportionately. 

Liability to imprisonment for acts for which such punish- 
ment had been named in the original Act was expressly abol- 
ished by the Elkins Act, thus recognizing that the penalty 
should apply to the beneficiary, and not its agent. Corpora- 
tions, having no souls, could not be sent to the penitentiary. 
This greatly increased the efficacy of the statute. 

In its annual report for 1904 the Commission went on 
record that the branch of regulation that dealt with the pub- 
lication and invariable application of tariff rates “as amended 
by the Elkins law of February 19, 1903, appears to be operat- 


288 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ing successfully as applied to carriers subject to its provi- 
sions.” ‘The Commission was greatly encouraged in its fight 
for authority to prescribe the reasonable rate upon complaint 
after hearing by a passage in President Roosevelt’s annual 
message calling on Congress to confer on it “the power to 
revise rates and regulations, the revised rate to go at once into 
effect and stay in effect unless and until the court of review 





BALDWIN SANTA FE TYPE OF 1903 
Built for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe—Heaviest type used at that time 


reverses it.” As the Commission was to be the judge of the 
facts, the right of appeal was a barren legal ideality. 


The Commercial Valuation of 1904 


Among the questions involved in the discussion of railway 
rates and relations to the public, none has caused a wider 
divergence of opinion than that of the relation of their cost 


or value to their capitalization. From their inception this 
has been in dispute. Their capitalization, starting with the 


humble figures of $15,000 to $20,000 a mile, exclusive of equip- 
ment, has gradually advanced until, at the beginning of the 
eighth decade, the total capital stood at $11,688,147,091, or 
$61,531 per mile; whereas, eliminating the intercorporaite 
duplication of stocks and bonds, it was only $9,482,649,182, 
or $49,925 per mile. 

This last figure may be compared with $43,781, which 
was found to be “the mean cost per mile of all the finished 


FIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 289 





roads in operation” in Massachusetts in 1849 by the standing 
committee on railways and canals within the commonwealth. 
Early in 1902 S. N. D. North, then Director of the Census 
Bureau, under authority of the Act of March 6 of that year, 
undertook an appraisal of railway property, and employed 
Prof. Henry C. Adams, the Commission’s statistician, to direct 
and superintend the work. The attempt to get anything 





ILLINOIS CENTRAL FREIGHT YARD IN THE HEART OF CHICAGO, 
; PHOTO OF 1904 


approaching a satisfactory valuation quickly. proved abortive 
and Professor Adams, with the assistance of Prof.’.B: H. 
Meyer of the University of Wisconsin, now a member of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, adopted the rule that the 
valuation of the operating railway systems “should be arrived 
at by the capitalization of their true net earnings at a rate to 
be determined by the market value of their securities.” The 
capitalization was based on net operating income after taxes 
were paid, and excluded revenue from outside sources. “Only 
the strictly net earning capacity of the transportation business 
-of the railways was capitalized.” The final appraisement 
was then computed from the mean of the five years ending 


June 30, 1904. 


290 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The rate of capitalization, upon which the whole structure 
of the valuation rested, was arrived at by Messrs. Adams and 
Meyer and the method of its determination was explained at 
length by Prof. William J. Meyers, who subsequently suc- 
ceeded Professor Adams as Statistician of the Commission. 
So when the ratio was finally fixed at 4.256 per cent it had 
behind it as expert official authority on railway accounting 
as could be found in the United States. 

As announced in Census Bulletin 21 by Professor Adams: 

“The commercial value of railway operating property in 
the United States computed for the year 1904 was $11,244,852,- 
O00, or $52,600 per mile.” 

For the same year the net railway capital of the same rail- 
ways was $10,711,794,078, or $52,099 per mile. 


How the “Commercial Value” as reported by Professor 
Adams was apportioned among the states is shown in the 
following table from Census Bulletin No. 21, with the taxes 
paid by the railways in the respective states for the same year: 


Commercial Value 


of railway operat- Average Taxes 
State ing property as of Value Ad Valorem 
June 30, 1904 Per Mile 1904 
A Viteds Slates oot, wien Wee eee $11,244 852,000 52,500 $61,649,474 
FA la bani tae apis raat, Mee ee 150,211,000 32,200 761,660 
ATIZON Eat. tee eee, aa 68,356,000 39,000 222.357 
GAT RANSAS. Lit ee hartge te tao 124,626,000 30,200 613,752 
SEN Dn tore he Wa sme na Ay 7 nee eae A 350,694,000 56,000 1,720,860 
CROTORAGG a Mins Og one tee ave 198,261,000 39,800 1,325,962 
Connecticttoe.: 0. fests rae 105,369,000 103,500 1,123,124 
Delaware ts Seca eek ak 17,285,000 51,500 21,388 
District of sc.ol ttm bia os. eae. 5,578,000 174,300 28,150 
PlOTidane eee ee eee 80,467,000 22,600 503,320 
ATED TRIBE 3 wal. Ws Vases taletintes 156,603,000 24,800 874,092 
Wilt Ot 22 te Ri tos Ao eat athe Oe. im Pe te 91,877,000 62,900 342,911 
DOTS este. So eure ils et ee es 805,057,000 69,300 4,792,986 
TPA AG cheats Hes ae eee SO es 375,541,000 54,300 3,057,204 
dL GaVA RO RAO AL ec ss Valk he cons mee 344,847,000 35,000 2,046,751 
IRaSaG ia eratene ste Cer ee 356,356,000 40,400 2,436,986 
Kentucky ear eet tire. oie hes 155,772,000 47,900 1,051,156 
TiS icra on Gee che hc, etenees 123,401,000 $1,600 727,398 
MDA eat tsar ce mee eee a atts 80,146,000 39,600 411,891 
Manvland <u, ceireeae foe: 132,342,000 93,100 468,810 
MaSsachisettSsactec ie ees ae 250,052,000 118,000 1,589,497 
ITCHIP AT I IAe ects aes eels ee 277,597 ,000 32,100 2,560,699 
Mianniesotas case. flats en een 466,734,000 59,800 1,937,139 
Mississippian <a. coke eee 107,884,000 31,000 541,900 


MASSOLITE Poaks. . ees bie 309,768,000 40,200 1,509,291 





EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-191 291 

Monti tate eon. bee ese ee 196,209,000 60,100 680,353 
Nebraska metre cern 2 tare *, 263,170,000 45,200 1,285,793 
Wevadastere ites ee nt. 43.745,000 44 300 344,603 
NewiHampshire: 2.2 .te. els 79,786,000 62,500 391,595 
WeWs JEZSC Vee Ay cate uses 333,568,000 146,400 1,694,045 
Wewee Mexicous fn fo Se. 86,400,000 34,500 284,073 
UN GNVARY OL ist GON Ug cee beter 898 222,000 108,300 4,651,307 
NOLIN ATOlIaAs os a a: hoe ee 113,146,000 27,800 667,596 
INOLiite aK tee eer eke ee 123,390,000 38,700 683,644 
OT Oar te at a eo. Sc ous 689,797,000 75,000 3,956,164 
GVAEN Stee | a el ene GPa ure 78,668,000 30,100 291,471 
OPerOn mre tae Ot Sets eee 75,661,000 43, 333,861 
CTS VAVAIN Aw a Sates Sock ees 1,420,608,000 128,900 4,735,018 
fhoder lsiandirs ers. | ec eee 25,719,000 121,400 197,437 
SSGliemUaTONiare tre era 75,500,000: 23,800 467,230 
Soule akotaur se. eke. ks 49 646,000 16,300 306,449 
FRennesscem ce tes eRe ae 131,166,000 37,700 824,049 
SS sme ee AO cede ners 237,718,000 20,100 1,222,583 
tere etre ey oe eer he Ps 2) 90,325,000 50,800 367,996 
IWELINOLIt marsh bettas ota. 37,311,000 35,100 153,346 
Vit Siintiane: Brace An eon 3. 211,315,000 53,700 1,127,696 
AVEISIVIN STO eer te nik a's ao; 182,837,000 54,500 754,569 
WVieSSeay Ionia es Sete ae 201,799,000 71,000 549 286 
NVISCOMSIT Me eres cs eae ees 284,510,000 40,400 1,900,027 
WV Oe Ge hte rate operand dees waa 100,307,000 80,400 203,377 
Mig iiamed CTLitOTYe%.. <. se eit = 79,405,000 31,400 48,318 


Although this valuation has the defects and glaring in- 
equalities inseparable from the method adopted by Professors 
Adams, Meyer and Meyers, yet in the final result it is as 
worthy of acceptance as any attempt to appraise such a vast 
and complex property as the railways of the United States 
can be. An appraisal that gives to the railways of Wyoming 
a value of $80,400 per mile, with South Dakota set down at 
$16,300, does not carry conviction from any inherent plausi- 
bility. But on the whole the aggregate valuation of 
$11,244,852,000 receives strong support from the ad valorem 
taxes collected from the railways in 1904. These, including 
some $16,000,000 where the tax was levied on gross earnings 
or some other basis, amounted to a rate of approximately 
.55 per $100 compared with .74 per $100 of estimated true value 
as computed by the Census Bureau in 1902. 

If the adult student or school boy will take an arbitrary 
ratio of 5 per cent instead of the 4.256 per cent of Professor 
Adams and apply it to the. net operating income of Federal 
return without deductions, he will get as near the commercial 


292 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


eee 


value of the railways as the three able and conscientious 
professors did in 1904. Only, and this is all important, he 
must pick a normal year and not the mean of any five or 





TUNKHANNOCK CREEK BRIDGE—DELAWARE, Pei MEN 
& WESTERN R. R. 


—It is built of concrete, 2,200 rispiestis a Po ease the creek bed and has. twelve 
ten years with numerous deductions. By including the lean 
year ended June 30, 1915, an average Federal return of 
$940,000,000 was arrived at. This would have yielded a so- 
called “Commercial Value” of approximately $18,800,000,000 
which may be compared with the official valuation of 
$18,900,000,000 certified by the Commission in 1920. Applied 
to the railway situation in 1920 the methods and ratio adopted 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 AS 





by Professors Adams, Meyer and Meyers would have reduced 
the “Commercial Value” of the railways to nothing, along 
with the net operating income which was less than nothing 





FAST MAIL 1904—TAKEN AT 80 MILES AN HOUR 
—Green, Photographer 
that year. Applied to the net operating income of 1916 it 
would have supported a valuation of over $23,000,000,000. 
And so the “Commercial Valuation” of 1904 serves the 
useful purpose of furnishing a reductio ad absurdum for kick- 





720-FOOT SPAN OF BRIDGE OVER OHIO RIVER NEAR PADUCAH, KY. 


This span was built on timber falsework partly removed when picture was taken—It 
is the longest simple truss ever built. 


294 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





ing out of court all such valuations resting on the fluctuations 
of traffic, rates and wages or stock exchange quotations. The 
wind that bloweth where it listeth is no more fickle than the 
elements upon which net railway operating income depends. 
Any such valuation is absolutely worthless for rate fixing 
purposes, for it depends on the ratio as related to wages, 
which represent over 60 per cent of the cost of operation. 





NARROW GAUGE GIANT OF 1876 AND ITS SUCCESSOR 


To this extent the Commercial Valuation of 1904 was worth 
the space given it in this histary. - 


Commission Gets Power to Prescribe Rates 


By what is known as the Hepburn law, approved June 
29, 1906, the Commission finally got what it had been seeking 
for many years, authority to prescribe just and reasonable 
rates in place of those which after complaint and hearing it 
had pronounced unjust, unreasonable or discriminating. 
Although in its twenty-first annual report of December, 1907, 
the Commission testified that the law had been accepted by 
railway managers in good faith, who had shown a sincere 
disposition to conform to its requirements, little immediate 
progress was made toward the effective enforcement of the 
Hepburn amendment. This followed the filing of suits ques- 
tioning the right of Congress to delegate to any tribunal 
authority to establish an interstate rate. 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 295 


No sooner had the Commission secured the approval of its 
authority to prescribe rates under the Hepburn law than it 
renewed its recommendation to Congress for the extension 
of its authority to prohibit the taking effect of the advance 
of rates or a change in regulations or practice by a carrier 
until the matter had been finally heard and determined by the 
Commission. With the enactment of the so-called Mann- 
Elkins Act of 1910, the Commission was finally clothed with 
almost absolute authority over the rate-making phase of rail- 
way management. Not only was it authorized to suspend 
the operation of proposed changes in rate schedules until their 
propriety had been investigated, but the Act imposed upon 
the carriers the “burden of proof” to justify the proposed rate 
advances. 

The first effect of this legislation, gathering the reins 
of both regulation and revenues into the hands of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission, was to put the brakes on rail- 
way extension and construction, as the following statement 
of the number of miles built in the five years preceding and 
following the passage of the Hepburn Act in 1906 shows: 


Railway Construction 








Before After 
Year Miles Year Miles 
MOA Getrees nore Sse 6,026 LOO, ees be 5212 
LOU Sapte es Epa eat o SOoe LOCOS Was oe oe 3,214 
TOGA ee i he Sec re 3,832 1 SOG elena eco ks ok ea 3,748 
LOO Ree acces eats ey 4 388 EO Mees tek eae tame 4,122 
LOU Gaeta Pech. a fe 5.623 POT ee oer eee 3,066 
HgVe. VEATSr es. 3 eel a Ph ivied VCakeu +) eee oO" 


This showing is serious enough, but it would be more 
impressive if the year 1907 had been shifted to the construc- 
tive period and 1912 and 1913, with a total of 6,068 miles built, 
had been added to the period after the Hepburn Act became 
really operative. Then the totals for the two periods of six 
years would have been 30,733 and 20,222, respectively. 

Between these six-year periods the average freight re- 
ceipts of the railways dropped from 7.62 mills per ton to 
7.50 mills and that apparently small difference cost the rail- 


296 ; HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








BUILT FOR BALTIMORE & OHIO R. R. IN 1904 
Weight loaded Engine and Tender 474,000 Ibs, 
ways approximately $180,000,000 in freight receipts, or 
$30,000,000 a year. Its paralyzing effect on railway construc- 
tion was the most serious effect of tightening the bonds of 


regulation. 
The Panic of 1907 


But astringent legislation and regulation were not the only 
adverse elements in the railway situation as it developed in 
the fall of 1907. For the fifth time in- eight decades they 
were caught in the maelstrom of a financial panic. Their 
early projects were postponed by the monetary crisis of 1837, 
caused by land speculation and “wild cat” banking; this was 





BALDWIN ATLANTIC TYPE 1906 
Fast Passenger Service 





EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 — 297 





followed by the financial depression of 1857, resulting from 
much the same causes; then came the panic of 1873, attended 
by the suspension of specie payments, following the failure 
of Jay Cooke & Company and the depression of 1893, for 
which impending tariff changes and the fear of silver legisla- 
tion were held largely responsible. On each of these occa- 
sions the railways were involved to such an extent that build- 
ing operations were suspended, as their credit suffered in 
common with the banks and trust companies. The financial 
crisis of 1907 came upon the railways out of a clear sky. For 
the ten years 1897 to 1907 the railways had enjoyed a period 
of unprecedented extension and prosperity. In that time 
their gross earnings, expenses and net income had more than 
doubled, as the following statement shows: 


Revenues Expenses Net Income 
Year (thousands ) (thousands) (thousands) 
ETRE IEOR Ws tas ee TE $1,122,089 $ 752,524 $326,428 
TGF eal Rive he Ss ce aces 1,247,325 817,973 386,215 
[I ohh Sc a eR IR AR 1,313,610 856,968 410,305 
OO Ber Plots oii aeited 1,487,044 961,428 477,284 
19 EEF src eR Re Se na a 1,588,526 1,030,397 507,185 
Ee ere ee ees sy lore ae 1,726,380 1,116,248 555,667 
POI Se es s Lees 1,900,846 257505 585,459 
cine eee ee eae 1,975,174 1,338,896 574,582 
RUC ret ee Merit SEs. R ES. 2,082,482 1,390,602 628,406 
ROM tat hk fh cethe sd MONS 2,325,677 1,599,443 714,103 
AD UPEE CSDM Soi alee RN ae. 2,589,105 1,748,515 760,278 
Increase per cent........ 130.7% 132.3% 132.9% 


In the meantime the railway pay roll had increased from 


$465,601,581 to $1,072,386,427, or 130.3 per cent; and 85,962 
miles of track had been added to the facilities for carrying the 


ever-expanding volume of American traffic. Moreover, the 
freight rates had decline from 7.98 mills to 7.59 mills per 
ton mile. | 

So it was in the very heyday of their usefulness that the 
panic of 1907 overtook American railways. Where their 
revenues for that October wefe $250,575,757, by February, 
1908, they had dropped to $161,085,085 and the earnings for the 
calendar year 1907 fell from $2,621,288,809 to $2,322,831 ,233, 
a loss of nearly. $300,000,000, or over 11 per cent. By prompt 
and drastic retrenchment, less than $100,000,000 of this loss 
was carried to net income. But that retrenchment fell heav- 


298 HISTORY -OF<AM ERICANWRAILYW AVS 





ily on the pay roll, which was reduced from 1,672,074 to 
1,458,244 in 1908, or nearly 18 per cent. The cut in compen- 
sation, however, was not proportional, being only slightly 
over $20,000,000, or less than 2 per cent. The difference was 
accounted for by an advance of 5 cents a day per employe. 
The recovery of the country and railroads from this panic 
was not complete until 1910. 





STEEL PASSENGER CAR 1907 WEIGHT 105, 500 lbs. 


Floods and Earthquakes Test the Railways 


From their inception the railways of America had to face 
perils by storm in all seasons and by disastrous floods when 
spring unlocked the accumulated snows of winter. Built 
along the winding watercourses of the continent, their tracks 
were often only a few feet above normal high water mark 
and therefore were exposed to washouts and destruction 
whenever Mother Nature saw fit to let loose torrential rains 
among the hills and mountains. West of the Mississippi are 
many rivers that are fit for concrete paving part of the year, 
but down which raging torrents rush at other seasons and 
without always waiting for the calendar. “A mile wide and 
six inches deep,’ as a cynic has described them, but liable 
to death-dealing convulsions. The Mississippi itself is a 
tricky stream and has played many mad pranks with its levees 
and banks, the railways ranking among the first and often 
the heaviest sufferers. 


Rea Soe CY he 


FIGHT AH. DECADE, 1900-1910 AS, 





But it was left for the year 1906 to furnish a diversion in 
the way of a convulsioneof Nature that was to involve the 
railways in the dual role of sufferer and rescuer. On April 
18 of that year San Francisco was visited by a series of violent 
earthquake shocks. The quake itself would not have de- 
stroyed any considerable part of the city. But it started fires 
in several widely separated sections and the fractured and 





BALDWIN DECAPOD TYPE OF 1906 
Built for Pennsylvania R. R.—Weight engine and tender 582,100 lbs. 


dislocated water mains left the fire department without ade- 
quate means of controlling the flames. For three days these 
raged unchecked and were finally stopped only by means 
of water from the bay pumped through a tandem line of fire 
engines connected by long sections of hose. Meanwhile the 
whole business heart of the city and a large part of the resi- 
dential section, covering all told more than five square miles, 
had been reduced to ashes or smoldering ruins. Something 
like 200,000 persons were rendered homeless and the property 
loss was appraised at $325,000,000. 

The railways suffered in common with the inhabitants of 
the smitten city, but it was given to them to play a most be- 
neficent role in the rescue work, in bringing shelter to the 
houseless and removing the homeless and hungry to neigh- 
boring communities where there was welcome shelter and 
abundant food. The resources of both the Union Pacific and 
the Southern Pacific systems were put at the service of: the 
Sit wena theripet aay or the-disaster .Vice*President’ Hiri. 
Calvin of the Southern Pacific bought $20,000 worth of food 


300 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


in Los Angeles and rushed it to San Francisco by special 
freight running on passenger time. «lt reached there in time 
to preserve the inhabitants of the still smoking city from 
experiencing the pangs of hunger for a single day. In the 
first 24 hours after the earthquake the so-called Harriman 
lines moved 1,073 carloads of refugees to the country and on 
the next day as many more. Fortunately, both quake and 
fire spared the ferry house at the foot of Market Street and 
there the railways made their headquarters the Mecca for 
the distressed and half-dazed populace that declined transpor- 
tation to happier scenes. In his report Vice-President Calvin 
said that between April 18th and May 23d the two roads 
brought into San Francisco free of charge 1,603 carloads of 
supplies, at a cost of $445,410, and carried out 224,069 refu- 
gees, whose fares, if they had been paid, would have amounted 
to $500,831. 

This record of Good Samaritan work is told here because 
it is a replica, only under different circumstances, of what 
railway companies have been quick to do in every community 
visited by fire, flood, tornado or crop failure. These very 
words bring the names of Chicago, Johnstown, Louisville and 
Kansas to mind. As willing rescuers they have played the 
part of first aid to the injured in every state in the Union. 
About the only echo of this splendid work in San Francisco 
to find its way into national recognition is the following note 
referring to the compensation of employes in the official Sta- 
tistics for 1906: “This figure does not include the amount 
paid by the Southern Pacific Company, which by reason of 
the fire that occurred in San Francisco in April, 1906, lost 
many of its records and was thus unable to make a complete 
report.in .this jrerard.., 

But the bears of the stock exchange in New York did not 
fail to take toll of the calamity. The psychological tremor 
that struck San Francisco was felt across the continent and 
shook more than a billion of market value out of railway 
securities. Between April 17 and May 20 the shares of the 
leading companies sold off all the way from 6 to 48 points. 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 301 








Industrial stocks showed their sympathetic sensitiveness to 
anything affecting the railways by even greater losses. 


Saving the Imperial Valley 


To the majority of school children, as well as their elders, 
the term Imperial Valley means little more than a rich section 
of the great State of California famed for its glorious climate 
and golden harvests, agricultural and mineral. The real Im- 














FLOOD WATERFALL IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, CUTTING BACK 


perial Valley is one of Nature’s most interesting phenomena. 
Here is a depression in the earth’s surface about 100 miles 
long and.35 miles wide that was once covered by water to a 
depth of 400 feet in its deepest part. Once it was the north- 
ern end of the Gulf of California, and the Colorado River 
poured its flood of water and silt into its eastern shore. In 
time the silt formed a barrier clear across the gulf and left 
its upper stretch a great sdlt water lake. Slowly the Cali- 
fornia sun sucked up the water, at the rate of five or six feet 
a year, leaving nothing but an arid basin known as the Salton 
Sink. There are evidences that through the ages the Colo- 
rado River frequently broke through the barrier it had cre- 


302 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


ated and the gulf flowed back into its ancient banks, only 
to have the process of exclusion renewed by the fickle river. 
Early American explorers who crossed the Sink found 
nothing there but a hot, waterless desert, apparently the bot- 
tom of a-dried up lake. None of them realized that it was 
far below the level of the Pacific Ocean. Not until 1891 did 
the idea of irrigating the Salton Sink with fresh water from 
the Colorado River find lodgment in some adventurous minds. 
But the company that attempted to execute the idea went 





THE MAN AND THE JOB 
Facing the Problem -of a Flooded Empire 


bankrupt in 1893. The project languished for nearly ten 
years, when it was renewed, a canal was dug from the Colo- 
rado at Pilot Knob, nearly opposite Yuma, and the boastful 
name “The Imperial Valley” was substituted for the ominous 
sounding “Salton Sink;” 400 miles of irrigating ditches were 
dug and water was available for 100,000 acres more of irri- 
gable land. 

It was but another story of American adventure and en- 
ergy waving the wand of unwavering will above a seeming 
impossible situation and seeing it blossom as no rose ever 
blossomed before. 

Then enter the railway. <A branch of the Southern Pacific 
was built through the valley. By 1904 more than 10,000 
settlers were on the ground, numerous town sites were laid 
out, the capacity of the canals and irrigating ditches was 
quadrupled and by January, 1905, 120,000 acres of reclaimed 
land were under actual cultivation. The land was so rich in 
varied elements that it would literally produce almost any- 


LIGHT AH DECADE. 1900-1910 303 








thing. Nowhere on earth was Nature more bountiful. The 
air of the valley was so dry that men worked in a tempera- 
ture of 120 in the shade without exhaustion. The title “Im- 
perial Valley” was justified in the abundance and variety of 
the crops. 

But the Colorado River had to be reckoned with. What it 
had done ages before it could do again. And it proceeded 
to wreak its will. In 1904 the silt from the Colorado, such 
as had dammed out the waters of the gulf from Salton Sink, 





THE RIVER STILL RAMPANT 
Contemplation gives place to action 


gradually clogged up the canal that was furnishing the life- 
Saving irrigation to the valley. So the engineers of the Cali- 
fornia Development Company started to cut a new intake 
from the river. The Colorado River took advantage of the 
failure to provide this intake with a head gate control, to 
start serious trouble. In February, 1905, it began operations 
with its first flood of the season, which passed without doing 
any damage. Shortly after followed another flood and that, 
too, passed. But the flood that came along in March was 
something different. The spring sun in the mountains was 
behind it and it started to enlarge the size of the intake. At 
first the breach was only sixty feet wide, and the engineers 
tried to close it with piles, brush and sandbags. ‘These were 
swept away by another flood. The crevasse was widened 
from 60 to 160 feet and the river was flowing into the valley 
at the rate of 90,000 cubic feet per second. It quickly over- 
flowed the banks of the main canal and soon, in the words of 
Mr. George Kernan, “a new Salton Sea. was in process of 
formation.” : 


304 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Right here is where a railway—this time the Southern 
Pacific—was called in to save a prosperous community from 
being drowned out or driven into the desert wilderness sur- 
rounding the oasis. It loaned the development company 
$200,000 to help control the river. But this was pronounced 
insufficient by the engineer, Epes Randolph, who said the 
ultimate cost “might easily run into three-quarters of a million 
dollars.” 





DUMPING MILLIONS OF DIRT AND DOLLARS INTO THE SALVATION 
OF SALTON SINK 


“Are you certain you can put the river back into the old 
channel?” telegraphed Mr. Harriman. 

“T am certain it can be done,” replied Mr. Randolph. 

“Then go ahead and do it,” wired Mr. Harriman. 

And so the battle was on. 

The Gulf of California lay only 100 feet below the broken 
intake, the bottom of Salton Sink was 300 feet lower. The 
engineers sought to deflect the river by a jetty, but it failed. 
By the construction of a 600-foot barrier-dam the flow was 
lessened and hopes were high that the worst was over. But 
on the last day of November a flood carrying masses of drift- 
wood came down the Gila, a tributary to the Colorado, and 
increased its discharge from 12,000 to 115,000 cubic feet per 
second. The dam disappeared, the crevasse widened to 600 
feet and nearly the whole river poured into the valley, form- 
ing a lake with a surface area of 150 square miles. 

At this point it became a question of self-preservation for 
the railway. Its main line “was almost awash.” If the river 
could not be controlled before the spring freshet, 60 miles 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 305 





of Southern Pacific track would be submerged, the splendid 
work of irrigation would be undone and the Imperial Valley 
would become a fresh water lake. Engineers and contractors 
were at their wits’ end for means to avert the impending dis- 
aster, that grew every hour as temporary plans proved futile. 
The crevasse had grown to a quarter of a mile in width and 
“the Colorado was pouring into the Salton basin more than 
4,000,000,000 cubic feet of water every 24 hours.” 

On April 19, the day after the San Francisco earthquake, 
the Southern Pacific took full charge of the defensive opera- 
tions. But before it could begin to stem the flood, the sum- 
mer freshet arrived, doubled the width of the break and poured 
a resistless avalanche into the valley. At its height the Colo- 
rado carried 75,000 cubic feet of water and silt per second, 
or 6,000,000,000 cubic feet every 24 hours, into the valley. 
The main line of the Southern Pacific was quickly inundated, 
and the inhabitants were fleeing to the mountains from a lake 
that rose seven inches a day over a territory covering thou- 
sands of acres. 

On August 6, when the summer flood had passed its peak, 
the work of damming the crevasse was begun. The railway 
company recruited a motley camp of Mexicans and 2,000 
Indians from six tribes and with all its road building resources 
sought to divert the water while erecting control gates. But 
the river once more proved too much for the mortals and 
the work of four months of labor and an expenditure of 
$122,000 was swept into the valley. 

The men engaged in this struggle with riotous Nature 
were of the stuff that may be down but is never out. They 
redoubled their efforts, added a thousand more men and seven 
hundred horses and mules to their little army, and proceeded 
to dump rock and gravel and clay into a massive levee half a 
mile long across both intake and crevasse. Checked at this 
point, the wily water started a flank movement 1,200 feet 
farther south and in less than three days the whole river 
was pouring down the 400-foot slope into the Salton Sea. 

Then it became evident that no temporary dike would 
afford protection from the Colorado River in its riotous moods, 


306 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





and it was decided to build a great rampart along the west 
bank of the river for at least twenty miles. This it was esti- _ 
mated would cost approximately $1,500,000 and the railway 
company had already spent as much to no purpose. At an 
additional cost of fifty or sixty thousand dollars it could 
move its track out of danger. The temptation to abandon the 
Imperial Valley to its sink was almost as resistless as the 
raging river. 





MAN TRIUMPHS AND THE IMPERIAL VALLEY IS SAVED 


In this emergency Mr. Harriman laid the whole situation 
before President Roosevelt. The President responded by 
wiring for fuller information as to what was proposed. On 
December 15th Mr. Harriman advised him that if work was 
begun at once engineers said the break might be repaired 
for $300,000 to $350,000, and the Southern Pacific would co- 
operate with its train service, tracks, switches and quarries. 
Then ensued telegraphic quibbling over responsibility, past 
and future, ending by the Southern Pacific undertaking to 
repair the break, trusting to the Government for assistance. 

So the fight was resumed. Trainload upon trainload of 
small stones and rocks as large as flat cars could handle were 
dumped from a trestle into the crevasse, to be followed by 
sravel and smaller material to knit the whole into a solid 
mass. Finally, as this rose, the water passing over the dam 
lessened and began to seek its own channel, and by February 
10, 1907, the gap was closed tight and the Colorado flowed 
once more in its old way to the gulf. | 

To make the future of the Imperial Valley safe for future 
generations of agriculturists, an unbroken line of dikes was 


BIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 307 








constructed for a dozen miles near the river, shutting it off 
from the lowlands to the west. 

All told, the Southern Pacific spent $3,100,000 in the pres- 
ervation of the Imperial Valley and, although Congress was 
urged by two Presidents—Roosevelt and Taft—to reimburse 
the company in some measure for “coming to the rescue of 
the Government at the instance of President Roosevelt in a 
great emergency,” as Mr. Taft phrased it, the claim has never 
been honored. A majority of the House Committee on Claims 
reported a -bill appropriating $773,000 in January, 1911, but 
it got no farther. The claim is still unpaid at this writing. 

In 1916 it was claimed that the farmers of the Imperial 
Walley-expected to €ain a sum equivalent to interest.on 
$500,000,000. For the week ending July 5, 1924, over 14,000 
carloads of cantaloupes were shipped from the valley. 

In this splendid piece of rescue work the Southern Pa- 
cic simply added to the lone list. of sacrifices American 
railways have made for the communities they serve only to 
experience the traditional ingratitude of republics. But the 
Imperial Valley, with its teeming inhabitants and industries, 
is a splendid monument to the intrepid American spirit that 
has conquered and settled this continent from the Atlantic 
fosties bacinc, 


The Ohio Flood of 1913 


Out of its place in this brief chronicle the flood that swept 
down the watersheds of the Muskingum, the Scioto and the 
Miami, tributaries of the Ohio, in the spring of 1913 gives 
another glimpse of the perils the elements hold over the rail- 
ways. In the early days of March the valleys of these rivers 
were peopled by as happy and prosperous a community as 
was to be found in the United States. Cities, towns, villages 
and farm buildings dotted the landscape in every direction. 
Between Wheeling to the east and Indianapolis to the west 
rose such well-known cities as Columbus, Dayton and Zanes- 
ville. The school boy, with a string representing a hundred- 
mile radius on any map with Columbus as its center, can get 
a fair idea of the territory in Ohio alone whose inhabitants. 


308 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





went io sleep on March 20 without dreaming that anything 
could or would happen to disturb the physicai security of 
their lives. The dwellings and their grounds were sodden 
with the moisture of a wet winter. There was nothing par- 
ticularly alarming when a severe wind storm swept eastward 
over the state on Friday, March 21. Wind storms in March 
are no unusual occurrences even in the peaceful valleys of 
Indiana and Ohio. It did a lot of damage to telephone and 


| Kalo magoo 





South Bena 


Piymouwth Butler 


fy 
Fr Wi 
Peorie Adem: oe hil 


2 Offa” 


: 
Farmdel 
sey if logensport 





Converse Brian? 
Morior 


Ridgeville 
Decetur Morve Bradfor 
. anderson 
S i Noblesville 
Waveland 
QRockville Lah) ade) Ke te, Dayt 
¢ a Poris 
Farringlon A aes a,c , 
mee Srey: 


D 
Camden Lancester 

lerre Mavti Ibyville \ Washington CH. 
Gosport? Hami!ton 





1 orrow 
landahe AColumbus iM) ddletown Jc 


werrad Cinunnatr 


Vincennes bMadison 


New Albany 
4 Loursvilie 


LINES BEFORE THE FLOOD CAME 


telegraph wires and tore up trees by their roots. And it set 
the stage for the disaster that was brewing in distant head 
waters of the Ohio tributaries. On Sunday morning rain 
began to fall in the extreme northwestern section of the state 
and continued for the next four days to deluge the whole 
state eastward to the Pennsylvania line. In that time an 
average for the whole state of between 7 and 8 inches fell, 
ranging from nearly a foot at Bellefontaine down to 2.7 inches 
at Marietta, nearly 150 miles away. The student can visual- 
ize what that means by taking the area of Ohio, 40,740 square 
miles, or slightly more than four times that of Lake Erie 
(9,960). This would give a rainfall in these fateful four days 
equal to a lake the size of Lake Erie 24 feet deep. 


; MiGhe eee ADE LO00T910l 309 





This was no tideless lake; but a resistless current, obeying 
the law of gravitation and seeking by hundreds of creeks and 
rivers to find its way to the Ohio River, whose banks were not 
high enough or far enough apart to carry it off. Nothing 
built by men, of iron, steel or concrete, could withstand it. 
It swept embankments and abutments away as if they had 
been built of bubbles, seen for a moment, then vanishing into 
the universal wreck of debris. 





SMITH STREET STATION, CINCINNATI, OHIO 


In round numbers, 22,000 houses were destroyed and 35,000 
were seriously damaged by the water. Zanesville boasted a 
flood mark 15 feet above the previous high record, until Dela- 
ware, just north of Columbus, came to the surface with a 
claim of 15 feet 7 inches above its previous record. 


In Dayton it was reported from the high tower railway 
depot that the-only dry spots in sight were the National Cash 
Register buildings and grounds. 

When the rain ceased and the waters subsided into their 
accustomed channels, they left a deposit of mud and slime 
over the devastated area from an inch to a foot and a half 
in depth. 


Words cannot begin to picture the extent of such a dis- 


310 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





aster. How it overwhelmed the transportation system of 
that region can be judged from two skeleton maps of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad showing its system in the territory be- 
fore and after the flood. It cost this one road $3,019,240 to 
restore its lines, besides an indefinite loss in interrupted traf- 
fic. What happened to the Pennsylvania was the common 
lot of the New York Central “Big Four,” Erie, Baltimore & 





PENNSYLVANIA BRIDGE OVER MUSKINGUM RIVER, ZANESVILLE, 
OHIO 


Ohio, Hocking Valley, Wabash and other roads serving the 
fiooded district. In such a calamity Nature plays no favorites. 

Governor James M. Cox estimated that a million and a 
quarter inhabitants were affected by the flood and that the 
direct money loss was over $300,000,000. The fatalities ac- 
companying this disaster have never been definitely stated. 
One estimate places them at 444, including a number in Indi- 
ana and Illinois, for the torrential rain extended over a great 


part of those states. It'is probable the number exceeded 500 
dead and missing. 


BIGHTA DECADE, 1900-1910 311 





Intercorporate Relations of Railways 


In March, 1908, after nearly two years of diligent investi- 
gation, the statistician of the Commission, Prof. Henry C. 
Adams, made public his report on the “Intercorporate Rela- 
tionships of Railways in the United States.” In collecting 
and compiling the data for this report Professor Adams had 
the assistance of Mr. W. J. Meyers, subsequently statistician 
of the Public Service Commission of the Second District of 





RAILWAYS AFTER FLOOD HAD COME AND GONE 
Mark the universal dislocation of the lines 


New York and of Mr. Frank H. Dixon, from 1910 to 1918 
chief statistician of the Bureau of Railway Economics. As a 
result of their joint industry they found the outstanding net 
securities of the railways in the hands of the public were as 
follows: 


Amount Per mile 
Funded debt .......00e..--$ 7,842,400,969 $36,173 
SPOCIEI Por ae cuss week bee 4,743,049,585 21,877 
POtaleas Sectiritiesas., 224 faces 12,585,450,554 58,050 


This finding excluded from the securities having any claim 
upon the revenues of the railways all railway holdings from 
outstanding capital. It resulted in a reduction in the amount 


312 HISTOR YOPAMERICAN RAILWAYS, 





generally accepted as the measure of the claim of such capital 
on revenues from $67,936 per mile of line to $58,050—a de- 
crease of practically $10,000 per mile. It was submitted to 
the Commission with the remark that: 

“This report makes public for the first time a correct state- 
ment of the portion of securities outstanding in the hands of 
the public.” 

Unofficially the Bureau of Railway News and Statistics 
had computed the outstanding railway securities in the hands 
of the public upon which returns from revenues were claimed 
during the three years that this investigation was pending, 
as follows: 


BQOG she Bae enctattens ee deers ice eee $57,966 per mile 
POO TS. 25d. nett Ne Cade inn, ae 57,425 per mile 
TOUGHER ae trac iae ile, Caen Beet 58,064 per mile 


Owing to intensive construction of auxiliary tracks, sid- 
ings and yard tracks and the decrease of miles of line through 
abandonment, the net securities in the hands of the public per 
mile of line has increased in 1923 to $76,734. 


Two Cents a Mile Passenger Legislation 


Contributing to the distress of the railways in 1907 was 
the action of the legislatures or commissions in twenty-two 
states placing a limit on passenger fares. In a majority of 
these states the maximum named was 2 cents a mile, and 
wherever by reason of special conditions it was 2% or 3 cents 
those conditions called for higher fares. 

Previous to 1906 it was estimated that the approximate 
cost of running passenger trains was a dollar a mile—exact 
figures then as now being incapable of determination because 
from 25 to 30 per cent of all operating cost is common to 
freight and passenger service. In 1906, the year when most 
of these reductions were ordered, the average number of 
passengers in a train, for the entire country, was 49 and for 
the three territorial groups chiefly affected it ran: Group 
III (Ohio, Indiana and Michigan), 44 to the train; Group 1V 
(Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina), 36 to 


F 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 313 


the train, and Group VI (Illinois, lowa, Wisconsin, Minne- 
~sota and portions of the Dakotas), 43 passengers to the train. 
By multiplying these figures by 2 cents the student will per- 
ceive that they fall short of the operating cost per train mile 
from 12 to 28 cents. In Group IV, 3 cents a mile was barely 
sufficient to meet the expense of operation. 

As the passenger train mileage in these three groups in 
1906 was upwards of 183 million, it will be seen that an aver- 
age fare 12 cents a mile below the cost of operating those 
trains would amount to nearly $22,000,000. Happily, a ma- 
jority of the states refused to follow such a destructive policy, 
and before our entry into the Great War the density of pas- 
senger traffic had overtaken the cost’ of operating trains. 

However, the 2-cent passenger legislation preceding the 
panic of 1907 added to its adverse effect upon the railways. 
The trail of the panic as shown in the official list of receiver- 
ships, 1907 to 1910, was as follows: 


Companies Miles operated 
June 30, 1907 29 3,926.31 
June 30, 1908 BA 9,529.03 | 
June 30, 1909 44 10,529.80 
June 30, 1910 39 5.25703 


It is worthy of record here that the question of a reason- 
able passenger rate was threshed out before the Railroad 
Commission of Wisconsin in the case of Buel vs. the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. One of the commissioners 
was B. H. Meyer, now of the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion. After an exhaustive review of the whole field it was 
decided that 3 cents a mile for intrastate travel in Wisconsin 
was excessive and that a charge of 2% cents should be sub- 
stituted for it. 

With the close of the decade, daylight was beginning to 
show ahead of the companies that had been hardest hit by 
the depression and its attendant difficulties of 1907. 


Effect of Panic on Rolling Stock 


In no other department of railway operation was the effect 
of the depression of 1907 more instant and far reaching than 
in the provision that has to be made for handling the peak 


314 HISTORY OF AMERICAN AIL AL 








of freight traffic. Throughout the year there had been an 
average shortage of freight cars, running as high as 140,000 
in February. This was gradually reduced until, in August, 
there was a small surplus. By October the shortage had 
risen again to 86,811. In the face of the slump in business 
that occurred toward the end of that month, the shortage 
shrank to 44,802 in the following month, to be succeeded by 





BALDWIN CONSOLIDATION TYPE 1910 
Heavy Freight built for Pennsylvania R. R. 


a surplus of 208,586 in December. From that point on for 
56 months, with two exceptions, surpluses were reported, 
rising as high as 413,338 in April, 1908. Nothing to equal 
this accumulation of idle freight cars had ever occurred on 
American railways. With a temporary break, the condition 
was to prevail until 1916. Its effect upon the construction 
of new freight equipment was immediate and paralyzing, as 
the following statement of cars built during the five years 
before and after the panic shows: 


Freight Cars Built 





Before After 

the the © 

Panic Panic 

OORT are cians 60,806 1 OUR tee Piha kano 76,555 
1905 ae Fee 165,155 1909 4.9 93,570 
TOGG ss eet tee ke 240. S05 1910 eee 180,945 
POONER EN Set 284,188 OTL eee ee 72,161 
Four years: .... 750,652 423,231 


Av. per year.... 187,663 105,808 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 315 





While it is a well-established fact that the life of a freight 
car averages between 20 and 25 years, and therefore there is a 
call for the replacement of about 100,000 freight cars a year, 
this table demonstrates that in the four years 1908-1911 barely 
enough cars were built to take care of the retirements from 
age, decrepitude and destruction. Except for the spurt in 
building in 1910, which was encouraged by the partial recov- 
ery in revenues in 1909, the building of cars for those years 
would have fallen below the minimum of provision for in- 
creased traffic. 


In passing it is worthy of note that between 1908 and 1918 
there was an increase of only 284,692 freight cars-in service; 
or 13.5 per cent, where the freight handled increased nearly 
90 per cent, the handling of the greater traffic being made 
possible by an increase in the average capacity of freight cars 
from 34 tons to 41 tons and in trainloads from 357 tons to 655 
tons. To make this possible the weight of locomotives on 
drivers had been increased from an average of 7/1 tons to 91 
tons. In tractive power, locomotives in the meantime had 
risen from about 25,000 pounds to 34,000, or about 36 per cent. 


A clear comprehension of these statistics as they relate to 
the equipment in the decade 1900 to 1910 is necessary to a 
thorough appreciation of how the railways rose to meet the 
great emergency of the following decade. Their lack of pre- 
paredness dates back to the Hepburn Act of 1906 and the 
panic of 1907. They were put on a starvation diet and forced 
to eke out the small surplus of funds and equipment they 
had been permitted to accumulate previous to that most fateful 
period in their history. 


The Farmer and Railways’ Share of the Consumer’s Price. 


Regarding the railroad and the farmer’s share of the con- 
sumer’s cost Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, in his 
report for the year 1910, made the following division: 


316 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Percentage of Consumer’s Price 


: Farmer Railway All other 
Milkioe st er 0 nar bine ee 50 7.0 43.0 (a) 
Butter 52 sue. or amen eae 50 0.5 49.5 
EC OO OUEN GS Oe Sosa Seas ae ee 50 0.6 49.4 
EMD De Sek sce ee we tee 50 6.8 43.2 
ES CANGS Scien tak aie ee 50 2.4 47.6 
PEIALOES Sr ee eaten eee 50 7.4 42.6 
Gram “allekinds | nae et ox 50 . 34 46.6 
FLAS Ge anes igh PRs 50 7.9 42.1 
Cattle tand ‘hoes 22tcaaieess 50 i 48.8 
ive POultt wos las sade t cc uae 50 age 47.8 
WOO etd 1 Cn tn Re ecle enom 50 0.3 49.7 


(a) Received mostly by the retailer. 


To which the Secretary adds, “The foregoing allowances 
for freight are to be increased by one-half when the farmer 
receives about three-fourths of the consumer’s price;” and he 
adds-that it is plain-that-the* cost. of -distribtition™ ironietac 
time of delivery at destination by the railroad to delivery: 
to the consumer is the feature of the problem of high prices 
which must present itself to the consumer for treatment.” 

In-another »part .of the report the secretary-saysm = ue 
railroad, generally speaking, adds a percentage of increase 
to the farmer’s prices that is not large.” Without straining 
a seam he might have said that it is an amazingly small price 
for the indispensable service rendered. : 


The Detroit River Tunnel 


Elsewhere has been told how the New York Central 
secured its Michigan Central connection with Chicago by 
bridging the Niagara River in 1855, but in doing so it had to 
ferry the Detroit River at Detroit. That break in locomotion 
—trains being ferried intact—was not overcome until the 
ferry was rendered obsolete by a tubular tunnel through which 
trains were hauled by electric locomotives. Regular freight 
and passenger service was inaugurated October 16, 1910, four 
years having been required in its construction. This involved 
engineering of novel features because of its magnitude. 
Where the giant tubes were to be laid the Detroit River is 
over half a mile wide and 50 feet deep at some places. It 
has an uneven bed over which the current runs at:a speed of 


PiGH TAC DECADE. 1900-1910 317 





two miles an hour on the surface and about half as fast at the 
bottom. The problem was to build two great single track 
tubes and lay them on or rather in a graded bottom so that 
they would resist pressure from all sides. In order to do this 
the right of way under the river had to be dredged to an even 
surface, 74 feet below the surface at the lowest point. The 
tubes were constructed in sections 260 feet long five miles 








DELROIE RIVER TUBULAREITUNNEL 
Sinking Section No. 10, August 4, 1909. 


above their submerged beds. When this was done they were 
floated on great pontoons to the proper place and sunk with 
the utmost exactitude, so that they formed a single continuous 
tube from Canada to the United States. This was accom- 
plished and the result is said to be drier than the land on 
either side. 

The tunnel and approaches measure 12,800 feet or more 
than 234 miles. 

For engineers the designing, construction and placing of 
this great tubular, subaqueous tunnel presented numerous and 
interesting features which cannot be adequately dealt with 
outside of a technical review. The pontoons containing the 


318 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





tubes were launched sideways and floated down to their 
destination. But great concrete anchorages had to be sunk to 
hold them steady during the process of sinking them into the 
ditch that had been dredged for them. 

The interior radius of the tubes was 23 ft. 4 inches, being 
lined with 20 inches of reinforced Class A concrete and en- 
cased in solid Class B concrete, so that the two parallel tubes 
are imbedded in what is practically a solid rectangular block 





CANADIAN APPROACH TO DETROIT RIVER TUNNEL 


of concrete. The space between this and the side of the ditch 
is filled with the replaced river clay, so that the whole tunnel 
as it stands is a part of the solid bottom of the river. 

When laid there was no variation in the level of the tun- 
nel and only a negligible variation in alignmetnt—so accurately 
had everything been calculated and exactly constructed. 
Where the river is deepest the top of tunnel is slightly above 
the bottom of the river and had to be protected by riprap. 

In service the tunnel has developed no structural defects 
and, being operated electrically, is free from smoke and foul 
air. 


Rise and Fall of the Commerce Court 
On June 18, 1910, President Taft signed an amendment 


to the Interstate Commerce Act creating a Court of Com 
merce, with jurisdiction possessed by Circuit Courts of the 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 319 





United States in all cases of the kinds specified in the Act. 
These related specifically to the enforcement of orders of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission. The court was composed 
of five judges, with the rank and pay of United States Circuit 
judges with an allowance of $1,500 for the extra expense of 
living in Washington, D. C. Martin A. Knapp was taken 





CONCRETE LINED INTERIOR OF DETROIT RIVER TUBULAR TUNNEL 
Seventy-four Feet Under River Level at Lowest Point. 


from the Commission to head the new court, and his asso- 
ciates were men of eminence and experience at the bar and 
on the bench in the states from which they hailed. The 
new court attacked the duties to which it was assigned with 
commendable enthusiasm and ability that evoked both ap- 
proval and criticism, as its decisions went for or against the 
shippers and carriers concerned. 

Hardly was the court fairly under way before an agitation 
was started for its abolition, which found such favor in Con- 
gress that a repealing clause of the Commerce Court Act 


320 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


was included in the legislative, executive and judicial appro- 
priation bill in June, 1912. This was made an additional rea- 
son for President Taft’s veto of that bill. In his message the 
President said that he could not find a single reason for the 
arguments advanced for repeal why the court should be abol- 
ished “except that those who propose to abolish it object to 
certain of its decisions.” “Next to impartial and just judg- 
ment,’ he continued, “the great desideratum in judicial re- 
forms today is the promotion of the dispatch of business and 
the prompt decision of cases. The establishment of the Com- 
merce Court has brought this about in a substantial way by 
reducing the average delay from two years to six months, 
and I doubt not that as time goes on and the procedure be- 
comes better understood this period of six months will be 
further reduced. It is greatly in the interest ‘of the shippers 
and therefore of the public that the means of reducing the 
time of remedial litigation against railroads should be pre- 
served.” 


The veto was sustained and a new bill, with the Com- 
merce Court provision omitted, was passed over another veto. 
However, the Commerce Court was abolished by an amend- 
ment to the urgent deficiency bill approved October 23, 1914. 
Thus was lost to the public a laudable attempt to put litiga- 


tion growing out of the regulation of American railways upon 
a sensible and expeditious basis. 


Mr. Acworth on American Railways 


Just before sailing for England, Mr. William M. Acworth, 
the widely known international authority on railways, after 
a two months’ tour of inspection of the railways in 1910, gave 
the results of his observation, as follows: 


“I have been somewhat surprised to see the space that has 
been given in your newspapers to the criticism of your rail- 
ways. It has been my opinion that in actual economy of 
operation the railways of the United States are first in the 
world. In the number of tons per car, cars per train; in the 
fullest utilization of locomotives; in the obtaining of the 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 321 








‘greatest measure of result for each unit of expenditure, they 
are not equaled by the railways of any other nation. When 
the Greek commanders after the battle of Salamis voted who 
should receive the prize for valor each put his own name first, 
put all put the name of Themistocles second. And Themis- 
tocles received the prize. So, 
too, though German, French 
and English railway men 
would, I dare say, put their 
railways first in efficiency, 
they would ‘all, I am _ sure, 
put yours second, and on the 
voting of the experts your 
railways would come out 
first. 

“But further, your nation 
as a whole is not in other 
matters pre-eminently — effi- 
cient. No one would say that 
your farmers were more effi- 
cient than those of France 
and England, or that your: 








governiment is more efficient SIR WILLIAM M. ACWORTH 
Whose death since first publication was 
than the government of Prus- a great loss to the railway world. 


sia. Your railways have reached a higher standard in inter- 
national comparison than your farmers or your government 
and under greater difficulties, for in England and on the Con- 
tinent employment with a railway company is a prize and a 
man hopes to remain in the service of the same company 
throughout his life. He is, therefore, obviously more amend- 
able to discipline than the shifting and often even foreign 
force employed on your railways. 

“The investors of Europe and even your own Wall Street 
seem hardly to grasp the enormous amount of money that 
must be spent upon railroads to keep pace with your growing 
traffic. If your traffic doubles every ten years, as it substan- 
tially does, you will need not perhaps to double your facilities 
every ten years, but to increase them at least 50 per cent. 


322 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





The eleven hundred millions per year specified by Mr. Hill 
as necessary for this purpose is none too much. The inhab- 
itants of your Western and Southern States, your people in 
general, must understand that this capital cannot be obtained 
in their own communities. 

“Texas and Oklahoma have no money to spare for rail- 
road building. They want it all for their own local business. 
Even the East cannot find all the money required. This 
money in iarge measure must for a long time to come be 
raised abroad; and the investors of other lines will not be 
willing to subscribe it so long as there is a continuance of 
the harassing conditions which tend to impair the revenues of 
your railways, to hamper their administration and to retard 
their development. If the railways of the United States could 
reach a time when state legislators ceased from troubling 
and state commissioners were at rest, it would in my think- 
ing be good for the railways and still better for the citizens 
of the United States.” 7 

Earlier in the decade (1903) another Englishman, this 
time Sir Neville Priestley, under-secretary to the Government 
of India, Railway Department, made an official report on the 
condition of American railways. After spending months in 
the country studying the subject, he made an exhaustive sum- 
mary of the situation, in the conclusion of which he bore the 
following testimony to his interesting and instructive ex- 
pericnace: 

“The railways of America are commercial undertakings 
on a gigantic scale, and are operated under conditions which 
are to be found nowhere else in the world, since they receive 
no protection from the State, and have had to fight their way 
to the front by sheer ability of management. * * * Many 
of their methods are different, often startlingly different, from 
those one has been brought up to believe the only correct 
method; and it is not until one realizes that the one idea in 
the mind of American railway men is to ‘get there,’ and that 
they do ‘get there’ by the shortest and quickest way, and do 
not allow themselves to be turned aside either by red tape, 


EIGHTH DECADE, 1900-1910 323 





old-time prejudices, tradition, or any other of the bogeys by 
which older countries are assailed, that one understands how 
the results have been obtained which one sees there. * * * 
That their methods are not always perfect is what might have 
been expected; but they have managed to do what no other 





434,500 lb. ENGINE OF 1910. ; 
Built by Lima Locomotive Works for Baltimore & Ohio R. R. 


country in the world has done, and, that is, carry their goods 
traffic profitably at extraordinarily low rates notwithstanding 
the fact that they pay more for their labour than any other 
country.” 

When the student gets that fact into his head—that Amer- 
ican railways have been built, maintained and operated by 
labor paid not only more but double that paid in any other 
country, except Canada (and Canada is in the same boat)— 
he will begin to take a just pride in what his fellow country- 
men have achieved on this continent. 


CHAPTER X 
NINTH DECADE—1910-1920 


INADEQUATE RETURNS. HIGHER INTEREST AND 71 AXES. BUILD- 
ING OF MONUMENTAL STATIONS. RAILWAYS AND THE 
Wortp War. FEDERAL CoNTROL AS AN EMERGENCY 
MEASURE. 


ITH the opening of the ninth decade of railway develop- 
ment in the United States the struggle between the 
conflicting views of their reg- 
ulation and management be- 
came more intense In the 
public mind generally the 
idea prevailed that the best 
results were to be obtained 
by subjecting their adminis- 
tration more and more to the 
regulating hand of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission ; 
whereas in railway circles 
and in the financial centers, 
from which they had to draw 
the sinews for growth and ex- 
tension of facilities, there was 
hesitation that was reflected in the rate on railway borrowings, 
Previous to 1900 for a generation the railways had been 
able to borrow a majority of their new funds at less than 4 
per cent. In that year they raised $215,039,851 for new con- 
struction at an average of 3.75 per cent. Between January 
and June 30, 1908, they borrowed $266,281,355, but by this 
time the average was 5.04 per cent and it has been above 5 
per cent ever since—all except gilt-edge securities of that 
denomination selling at a discount. Today it is only the low 
rate on early issues of long term securities that holds the 
average on the aggregate indebtedness of American railways 





CEMVELAND, (O.; DOCK CO] CAR 
DUMPER 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 325 





down to 4% per cent. The borrowings in 1923 for new con- 
struction ranged from 5 to 6 per cent, running as high as 7 
per cent on some short term securities, and the Commission 
has authorized loans at as high as 8 per cent. 

The attitude of the Commission was well stated by the 
late Franklin K. Lane, then Commissioner, in deciding the 
Western Rate Case in February, 1911, denying advances. In 
concluding, he said: 

“We do not say that the carriers may not increase their 
income. We trust they may, and confidently believe they 











AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE CO. ENGINE OF 1911 
Built for the Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Weight, loaded Engine and Tender 493,000 Ibs. 


will. If the time does come when through changed condi- 
tions it may be shown that their fears are realized, or ap- 
proaching realization, and from a survey of the whole field of 
operations there is evidence of a movement which makes 
against the security and lasting value of legitimate investment 
and an adequate return upon the value of these properties, 
this Commission will not hesitate to give its sanction to in- 
creases which will be reasonable. It is the law that rates 
shall be just and reasonable, and alike to all for like service.” 

The trouble with that decision, as with so many other 
decisions not only of the Commission but of the carriers them- 
selves, was that it mistook a spring shower for a crop-produc- 
ing rain. “It now appears probable,’ said Commissioner 
Lane earlier in his opinion, “that at the end of the fiscal year 
1911 the carriers here involved will in the main enjoy earn- 
ings as high as those they had in 1910—the highest year in 
their history.” ; 


" 326 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








The Commissioner’s anticipations were doomed to disap- 
pointment. While the earnings held up fairly well, the ex- 
penses outran them, so that the net operating income and 
operating ratio for the three years 1910-12 made the follow- 
ing showing: 

Operating Ratio, 


Net Income including taxes 
1910 $824,242,000 70.06 
1911 766,398,000 72.54 
1912 750,187,000 73.62 


Not until 1913 did the net income equal that of 1910 upon 
which the denial of advances was predicated, and by that time 








SMALLEST AND LARGEST LOCOMOTIVES IN THE PHILADELPHIA & 
READING SERVICE 

wages, expenses and taxes had got out of hand, so that net 
income in 1914 shrank to $706,175,000 and in 4915 to 
$728,212,000, while the operating ratio had risen to 76.83 and 
75.37 per cent, respectively. Prior to the Great War, an 
operating ratio, including taxes, above 70 per cent meant that 
it was time for the railways to hang out storm signals. With 
the war and Federal control advancing rates, this ratio with- 
out taxes was advanced to 75 per cent, and with them to 
approximately 80 per cent. 

Up to 1910 about the only ated investigators whose 
valuations kept pace with the growth of American railways 
were the assessors and taxing bodies. Between 1890 and 1910 
railway taxes more than trebled. They rose steadily from 
$31,207,000 to $103,795,000, or 232 per cent in twenty years, 
where their capitalization had not quite doubled and their 
revenues from operation had increased only 161 per cent. 

To understand what is essential to the successful and pro- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 327 





gressive operation of the railways of the United States as a 
system, the student must have in his mind some fixed formula 
that will insure a net return of at least 6 per cent on the capi- 
tal invested or valuation found by competent authority, plus 
at least 2 per cent additional to provide for additions, better- 
ments and improvements and the credit necessary for exten- 
sions. Besides a surplus must be maintained to take care of 








WHERE TRAIN AND LAKE FREIGHTER MEET AND EXCHANGE 
FREIGHT MECHANICALLY 


lean years as sure to come as night follows day. As a con- 
crete illustration of what such a formula should provide, the 
following distribution of the gross earnings of the railways 
in the fairly successful year 1910 may be accepted as a rea- 


sonable standard: Demeencat 

Amount Revenues 
Maintenance Sot Ways seoree:. ce $ 360,999,868 13.33 
Maintenance of Equipment......... 407,700,524 15.06 
EEC EEN DEIISCS ht eace eed ore ecu 55,176,869 2.04 
Transportation Expenses’ .2...3.0.% 905,404,200 33.44 
fpetrecaleeteeCliSeS. ce aie. ct haere van 65,177,264 2.40 
ee Cee oe cece ee ee alee i a) Gos 103,435,985 3.82 
otal xpenses) it ea 1,897,894,710 70.09 
Int. on Funded and Unfunded Debt 359,313,649 13 2/ 
Rent rot eased. ROA cs sc cess oh 123,976,236 4.58 


Dividends ‘and Surplus 2.5 2252.5 °° 326,614,395 12.06 
Total Return on Investment, etc. 809,904,280 29.91 
Total Operating Revenue...... 2.707,798,990 100.00 


328 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Whatever ‘the operating revenues may be, some approach 
to the percentages of this table for the railways as a system 
is necessary to their maintenance to the standard of service 
required for the United States. War wages and rates will 
necessitate an adjustment of these percentages on a basis of 








ASHTABULA, O.,.DOCK CO. CAR DUMPER 


75 per cent for expenses and taxes and 25 per cent for return 
on investment and surplus. Under the item “Dividends and 
surplus” has been included the appropriations for betterments, 
deficits of weak companies, reserves and surplus. But the 
attention of the student is particularly directed to the fact 
that the total of $809,904,280 denominated “return on invest- 
ment” amounted to over 5.90 per cent on the net railway 
capital cost of $13,710,570,171 in 1910. In 1911 the Interstate 
Commerce Commission reported the investment in road and 
equipment, without any deduction for accrued depreciation, 
as $15,612,378,845. “With adequate expenditures for mainte- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 329 | 


nance, there should be no such charge as “accrued deprecia- 
tion.” A properly maintained railway provides for better 
and better public service day by day. The thrifty maxim of 
American railway management sets aside a dollar for better- 
ments to every dollar for dividends and the railway regula- 
tion that does not make due allowance for improvements out 
of rates does not fulfill its duty to the American people. 


Effects of Restrictive Legislation 


By 1910 the combined effects of advancing costs of mate- 
rial and labor and the restrictive policy of regulation, state 
and national, had reduced the railways to the state of Caesar 
when he cried: “Help, Cassius, or I sink.’ No study of Amer- 
ican railways at the opening of the ninth decade in their his- 
tory is worth while that does not include a brief review of the 
conditions confronting them. Between 1900 and 1910 every- 
thing entering into their operation had advanced in price, 
whereas the one thing they had to sell—transportation—was 
nixed, and with a slight advance in 1901 was practically sta- 
tionary. During this period the range of receipts per ton and 
passenger mile was as follows: | 


Per Freight Per Passenger 

Ton Mile Mile 
Year (mills) (cents) 
1900 pas ee 2.003 
1901 . 7.50 21S 
1902 Tiai- 1.986 
1903 7.63 . 2.006 
1904 7.80 2.006 
1905 7.66 1.962 
1906 7.48 2.003 
1907 7.59 2.014 
1908 7.54 1.937 
1909 7.63 1.928 
1910 1153 1.938 


It will be perceived that during the decade 1900 to 1910 
American shippers and ‘travelers enjoyed the full advantage 
of stable rates and fares—a condition essential to sound in- 
dustrial development and social intercourse. Behind the 
slight advance in freight receipts shown for 1901 lies the fact 
that the average for that year marked the recovery from the 


% 


330 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





low record of 1899 incident to the attempt of the railways to 
advance rates without consulting the Commission. 

Turning to the other side of the ledger, which shows the 
steady increase in everything entering into the production of 
railway service, the thoughtful student will have no need of 
spectacles to appreciate what confronted railway management 
in 1910. The chief items of cost in railway operation are 
labor, fuel, metal and lumber. The following statement gives 





Lal 64 6> 6a ar : 60" 7° 7e° 77° 


as* ‘a 

MAP SHOWING CENTER OF "MANUFACTURES, 7] <* 

* AY EACH DECADE —+-— 
1850 To 1910 rae 


| OLA 
| AND THE CENTER OF POPULATION «=v "| 





FROM 1790 TO 1910 B Uterengad 
3X CENTER OF POPULATION Be 
jw] @ CENTER OF MANUFACTURES 
hae ioe Scale of nules 
eee mene ome alee A 
1890 
“~~ | 1900 © | 
| ‘ 
.o| Harel o* 
1910 \3 | 
Hes, » 


















: ei 
i { f / 
tote fietd» % bya NBD 5 ‘ 
BY eres NASHINGTOS Ahnapete 
939 Nogtssok yh : oH 
—~ ! Cy ¢ 








CENTER OF POPULATION 1790 TO 1910- 


the prices for the commodities relatively to a basis of 100 for 
the decade 1900 to 1910: 


Year Labor Fuel Metals Lumber All Commodities 
1157 110.5 


1900 102.4 120.9 120.5 

1901 101.2 119.5 111.9 116.7 108.5 
1902 102.4 134.3 Lif2 118.8 1129 
1903 105.9 149.3 117.6 121.4 113.6 
1904 109.0 132.6 109.6 122.7 113.0 
1905 109.6 128.8 122.5 Wee 115.9 
1906 109.6 131.9 135.2 140.1 122.5 
1907 115.0 135.0 143.4 146.9 129.5 
1908 118.0 130.8 125.4 133.1 122.8 
1909 118.9 129.3 124.8 138.4 126.5 
1910 120.3 125.4 128.5 153.2 131.6 


These increases, which any other industry would have 
added to the selling price of its product, increased the operat- 
ing expenses of the railways in 1910 by approximately 
$250,000,000. It was this condition that moved the railways 
to apply to the Commission for the increase in rates in 1910 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 331 


which was denied in February, 1911, in two decisions in what 
are known as the Eastern and Western rate cases. These 
decisions were predicated on a misapprehension as to railway 
profits in which dividends were counted twice and the opti- 
mistic anticipation of heavier trafic reterred to apove. The 
increased’ traffic did not materialize, but the advance in ex- 
penses did, so that 1911 and 1912 showed a marked shrinkage 
in net income. 


Building of Monumental Stations 


In marked contrast with the declining rate of railway con- 
struction in the early days of this decade was the demand 





THE NEW PASSENGER STATION AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 
SHOWING THE ABANDONED STATIONS 


for more extensive and expensive terminal facilities. Not 
only had traffic outgrown the provisions for its convenient and 
economical handling, but there was an insistent demand for 
larger and more pretentious passenger depots. Railway man- 
agers had quite generally resisted this pressure on the ground 
that it involved heavy outlay for sentimental and non-pro- 
ductive improvements. But the public would not be denied 
and the close of the preceding decade saw the railways em- 
barked on terminal programs that yielded such results as the 
Union Station at Washington, the Pennsylvania and the 
Grand Central stations at New York, the Chicago & North 
Western Station at Chicago and the Union Terminal Station 
at Kansas City. Only the war put a temporary stop to the 
tearing down of ancient landmarks to make way for modern 
monumental terminals. Moreover, many of the landmarks 


J32 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





UNION PASSENGER STATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

—as photographed by Schutz 
were not so ancient and none of them had exceeded the Bibli- — 
cal limit on the age of man, even by reason of strength. 

There were noteworthy passenger stations in the United 
States before 1910—for instance, the South Station at Boston, 





SLLISNHIVSSYN 


TRACK LAYOUT, UNION STATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Note “Tunnel”? Under Station for Southern Connections 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 333 








the Union Station in Baltimore, the Lackawanna Station at 
Scranton, the La Salle Street Station at Chicago, the Union 
Station at St. Louis and others of lesser dimensions, but the 
big five above mentioned, thrown open within a period of five 
years, marked an important advance in railway terminal archi- 





TRAIN CONCOURSE, WASHINGTON STATION 
—Schutz Photo. 


tecture truly noteworthy. In the adaptation of modern steel 
construction to the track facilities-of great passengef termi- 
nals they worthily represent the progressive spirit of Ameri- 
can railway management. They are beautiful examples of the 
builder’s art and engineering skill without any sacrifice of the 
public use which is their first excuse for being. 


Taken in the order of their completion, the Union Station 
at Washington replaces the several terminals that for many 
years were unworthy of our national capital. 

_ As early as 1901 Congress passed an Act providing for the 
building of a union terminal passenger station to take the 


334 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


place of the obsolescent ticket offices and train sheds that had 
served to welcome and speed visitors to the national capital 
for over sixty years. This Act as amended in 1903 provided 
for the connection and concentration of the existing lines en- 
tering Washington from the several points of the compass into 
a common terminal a few blocks north of the Capitol. 








MAIN CONCOURSE, WASHINGTON STATION 
—Schutz Photo. 


: The Washington Terminal Station 


The work of constructing and operating this consolidation 
was entrusted to The Washington Terminal Company, in 
‘agreement with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad, a subsidiary of the 
Pennsylvania. It was to be for the joint use of the named 
companies, the Southern Railway, the Washington Southern 
Railway, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and such other 
companies as might be admitted to the use of its facilities and 
connections. The revenues and expenses of the terminal were 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 335 


to be divided between and charged separately against the ten- 
ant companies in proportion to the use each made of the 
properties, respectively, as agreed upon. 

Under the Act of Congress all other existing stations were 
required to be abandoned, together with the tracks approach- 
ing thereto. Trains approaching the station from the south 








TRAIN SHEDS, WASHINGTON STATION oo bho, 
came in through a tunnel passing under the station building. 

The Station proper is a fine specimen of railway architec- 
ture and has the advantage of fronting on a semi-circular open 
space across Massachusetts Avenue. Noble as are its propor- 
tions, they have already been taxed when the people of the 
Union descend upon their capital for some special event. 

It is the only Passenger Station in Washington and affords 
direct connection between lines from all sections of the Union. 

The Washington Terminal was completed and opened on 
November 17, 1907; and therefore should be credited to the 
preceding decade. 


336 HISTORY OF AMERICAN -RAILIVAY S 





The Pennsylvania’s New York Station 


The magnitude of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s contribu- 
tion to the monumental edifices of the world is not visible 
to the spectator who merely admires its classic proportions 
occupying the Manhattan blocks bounded by 3lst and 33d 
streets and 7th and 8th avenues. It begins far out on the 
New Jersey shore at Harrison, where steam power is ex- 





THE PENNSYLVANIA PASSENGER STATION NEW YORK 
Fronting on 7th Avenue 


changed for electrical, crosses the Hackensack Meadows, 
passes under the Hudson at a depth of 97 feet, emerges into 
the sunlight at 10th Avenue, enters the Main building and 
then reverses the proceeding under the East River to re- 
appear on the Long Island shore. But the description of 
the enginering features of this vast undertaking would re- 
quire a separate chapter to do them justice, and few of the 
thousands who annually enter New York through the Bergen 
Portal. on the Jersey side realize the vision, skill, unerring 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 Jor, 





calculations and millions expended to secure such an entrance 
into the heart of Manhattan Island. The mere acquisition 
of the territory, two blocks wide, from 7th to 10th Avenue, 
required years of negotiation before the work of demolishing 
the buildings crowded upon it prepared the way for dynamit- 
ing the rocky chasm for the laying of the tracks and the 
foundation for the station proper. 





PENNSYLVANIA’S NEW YORK PASSENGER STATION TRAIN. CONCOURSE 


The reduced illustration of the station will give a better 
idea of its vast proportions and the beauty of its Doric 
facade on /th Avenue than many pages of letterpress. It 
has a frontage of 430 feet on the avenue and a depth of 784 
Onynne streets, . lhe average height, above. the. strect..1s- 69 
feet, with a maximum of 153. feet to the top of the rqof over 
the main waiting room. 


All told, the station and yards have an area of 28 acres, 
in which are 16 miles of track. The storage tracks will hold 
386 cars. The length of the 21 standing tracks in the station 
is 21,500 feet. Between these tracks are eleven passenger 
platforms, with 25 baggage and express elevators. The high- 
est point of these tracks is nine feet below the sea level. The 


a 


338 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





=» 


maximum capacity of all the tunnels running into the station 
has been placed at 144 trains per hour. 

The northern side of the station, running along 33d 
Street, has been assigned to the Long Island Railroad with 
separate entrances, exits, ticket offices, etc., to accommodate 
its large suburban traffic, which already taxes its capacity. | 





MAIN WAITING ROOM - 
Pennsylvania’s New York Passenger Station 


This station was opened for traffic in September, 1910, 
nine years having elapsed from the grant of the franchise 
by the city of New York. 


Chicago Station of the Chicago & North Western 


June 4, 1911, saw the Chicago & North Western Railway 
Company enter into possession of the first truly modern pas- 
senger station in Chicago. Its location and construction in- 
volved the transfer of the road’s passenger terminal from 
the north side of the Chicago River to the west side of the 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 339 


south branch of the same unique stream that flows inland 
from its mouth and finally mingles with the Mississippi a 
few miles above Alton by way of the Illinois River. The 
first station of the Chicago & North Western, or, more strictly 
speaking, of the Galena & Chicago Union, with which it was 
consolidated, as told elsewhere, was on the west side of the 





CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN PASSENGEK STATION, CHICAGO 


north branch. The second station, built in 1852, involved a 
move across this branch to the north side of the river proper 


at Wells and Kinzie streets. The river was first spanned by 
a swing bridge which in 1908 was superseded by a one-leaf 
double track jack knife that lifted its head 200 feet in the air 
to let small boats by. It was the congestion of traffic by 
this obstruction that finally determined the location of the 
new station. 

This choice involved the acquisition of right of way for 
six blocks through an industrial section of Chicago and it is 
not surprising to read that this feature of the undertaking 
alone entailed an expenditure of $11,560,000, or almost half 
the cost of the entire work. The station building and train 
shed cost $6,380,000. The total cost, including elevated ap- 
proaches, was approximately $23,750,000. 

The station building proper faces 320 feet on Madison 
Street by 218 feet on Canal and Clinton streets. Its walls 


340 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


are of gray Maine granite, as are the six 40-foot columns 
that mark the fine Doric portico on Madison Street. While 
the general outlines of this worthy addition to the world’s 
great passenger stations can be studied in the accompany- 
ing illustrations, its details, as they embrace nearly every- 
thing that the public demands and the railway has to furnish 
in a metropolitan terminal, will be of interest. 











CROSS SECTIONAL VIEW, CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN STATION 


In the main lobby of the station, entrance to which may be 
vy the portico just mentioned or through spacious doors on 
Canal and Clinton streets, are located the ticket offices 
information bureau, telephone booths, travelers’ supply and 
drug stores, telegraph offices, lunch room, cab and motor car 
offices, lost and found department and the parcel checking 
room. North of the lobby extends a most complete depart- 
iment {for=checking “in” and ““Out™ baeeage.-« Undere ine 
train shed farther north is the Canal Street Station of the 
United. States Post Office, to which mail is carried direct from 
trains by means of an endless chain belt between the tracks. 
The elevated tracks form a covered way over Washington and 
Randolph streets. 

The main waiting room, which is reached from the lobby 
by numerous elevators and stairways, in addition to the grand 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 341 





central staircase, is architecturally described as embodying 
the idea of a Roman atrium; that is to say, it is a spacious 
interior court -lighted mainly from above, and opens into 
other rooms on one wr more levels. Its sides are finished in 
Tennessee marble of a delicate light pink shade, and the col- 
umns which support the high vaulted roof are of green Cipo- 





Ee TRACKS ENTERING TRAIN SHED 
Chicago & Northwestern Passenger Station Chicago 


lino limestone. The ceiling is of self-supporting tile con- 
struction, with ribs of terra cotta, ornamented with symbolic 
signs. The whole tone and effect of this atrium are restful. 
On the west end of this court are found the main dining 
room and a separate waiting room for ladies. At its east 
end are the barber shop, news stand, smoking room and: pub- 
lic and pay toilets. 

Opening out of the main waiting room, through numerous 
doors, lies the train shed concourse across the entire width 
of the building, and beyond, still to the north, are the train 
platforms for sixteen tracks. The concourse is separated from 


342 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





the train shed by a glass partition and can be heated in win- 
ter to a temperature of 60 degrees. 

In minute attention to the comfort and-convenience of 
travelers this station resembles a great modern hotel, except 
in the absence of sleeping apartments. Noteworthy are the 
provisions made for the shelter and handling of immigrants. 








TRAIN SHEDS 
Chicago & Northwestern Passenger Station Chicago 

The accommodations specially set apart for them would be 
considered fully satisfactory by the average cosmopolitan 
tourist. The station, which appeared enormously roomy 
when opened, already shows signs of congestion at certain 
hours and on special occasions. It handles thousands of sub- 
urbanites and through passengers daily and illustrates how 
almost impossible it is to anticipate the growth of American 
passenger traffic. 

The North Western Station, with its terminal yards, 
covers eight acres and includes nearly three miles of track. 
Six years were required in its construction, including the 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 343 





acquisition of the right of way. Some idea of the value of 
the property on which this terminal has been erected may be 
gained from the fact that it had to pay $50,000 for a lot 80 
by 80 feet, or the equivalent of $4,224,000 per mile, and 
$365,000 for an irregular plot containing 28,000 Square feet 
at the rate of $6,864,000 per mile of right of way 100 feet 








MAIN WAITING ROOM, CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN PASSENGER 
STATION, CHICAGO. 


wide. Since the war property in the vicinity of this terminal 
has more than doubled in value. 


Grand Central Station, New York 


The history of providing a passenger station on Manhat- 
tan Island for the New York Central Lines and the New 
Haven Lines has been one of tearing down, moving uptown 
and building greater, only to find in a few years that they 
were not great enough. It is hard for the present generation 


344 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 345 





to realize that less than a century ago the first passenger 
terminal of these lines was on Chambers Street facing on 
City Hall Square. Its first move was up Fourth Avenue 
to 26th Street, the present site of Madison Square Garden. 
This served the metropolis from 1857 to 1871, when the Grand 
Central Station on 42d Street, facing down 4th Avenue, was 





GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL, NEW YORK 
From the Street Level, 42d and Vanderbilt Ave. 


built, only to be remodeled and greatly enlarged in 1900. It 
was of this station when originally finished, in 1871, that 
Commodore Vanderbilt said that it would accommodate all 
the railroad business coming into New York for fifty years 
to come and that it would be his best monument. Scarcely 
was the proud boast out of his lips before it was necessary 
to build an addition to accommodate the rush of travel, and 
before forty years were up his monument and its extensions 
‘had been torn down to make way for the present colossal 


346 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


monument—not to one man, but to the irrepressible genius 
of American railway progress. 

The accompanying illustrations must serve for any at- 
tempt to describe the completeness of this solution of the 
modern terminal requirements of a vast railway system. 
Nothing in the design and execution of this wonderful enter- 








CROSS SECTION GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL NEW YORK 
Showing Subway Site. The Bridge is over 42d Street 


prise exceeded in difficulty, from every point of view, the 
problem of operating without interruption the through and | 
suburban trains of two great railroads: while tearing away 
their old tracks and foundations and reconstructing far be- 
neath them the foundations for the new and greater trackage. — 
It was a marvel of engineering genius that added another 
amazing achievement to the record of American railway 
building. 

To the reader who delights in the tabulation of concrete 
information, the following figures will be of interest: 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 347 





ever e AOS OME LOLIInAl seit ack oi, ea ea 23 acres 
ete alezeOrenews verininaltisrss 2. os cioe . ES at 
epee OteCK PCs wel sinelevelonia tik. at, you. so. ae 464 “ 
Forty-two tracks, express level, length............... 19.5 miles 
Piatrorms;-expresssievel slenothe,/a. As BOL: hee Seay 
Pee SGT OTE VEL trae emer hemi ei als os dns BP ose 52.8 acres 
Twenty-five tracks, suburban level, length........... 14.1 miles 
Fiatiormiseesupurban levels -lenoth 45, 6 vec enc u ees 2.5 
DEERE PET 35 ¢ OURS Be Ge a ee ph Cag 
Bearer a roms srenetiws cn Ce ee te ee Sie eos 
yeti acpi Ol excavation, mamily in roék. fi... . 56 feet 
Bute mi mavove: street level osu. cas ee kaw nee sees ToGo 
Preteteuiiestation, streét Jevel oo. so sna cccnan ee Offi 
Wie eitiemrertation lar strect.lévelcsc.. 5 poets eke aes o10. 
Peet er cow estrechuleVvel pcp sit ck scx d eke eee eee. (Aye 
Wieter a peiyuna Streets Level, 0.2. ca on oF S Ceo cee oes ee 455-2 
Deiinroclovmastiect levels. 25 sss. 5140s nce eee 455% 
Potatoweient. of. steel sworks 230. o0 cc Bs gh bay na 118,597 tons 
eameci ymormords LET Hilal rvccr. . Coes ues ea Faces lees 366 cars 
peeve miler sLOritiNal ceva acts so cess Ge See a bes 0535" * 
Creer rOurpolnd «CONCOUTSE 2% fies ee cette os 15,000 persons 
eae fete MUO CONCOUPSE 2). oe. k ne ce nares le S000 2a 
Sasa Tee VAT 1. FOOUIS eo rec led! ncbads cae oe bp tee oe SOOM ieee 
Posssple vrais Ol per HOUL:... Socios. css ae eseeeees 200 


Average traffic old. terminal, per day..............-60,000 passengers 





GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL, NEW YORK 


Sie seen from a neighboring skyscraper. Hotel Belmont, left; Hotel Commodore, 
right; Park Avenue in distant vista 


348 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








Traffic capacity new terminal, per hour............./0,000 passengers 
Annualstrafiiczold=términaly leeks «ieee ae on 21 UU 000s paseen cere 
Possible annual traffic new terminal............100,000,000 passengers 


The new terminal has five levels where the old had but 
one. There is the gallery or top level on the 42d Street grade; 
the through train concourse; the suburban train concourse; 
the suburban track level, and the subway level for handling 


baggage. 





MAIN CONCOURSE AND TICKET OFFICE 
Grand Central Terminal, New York 


The most prominent interior feature of the station is the 
main concourse, where all facilities are provided for making 
travel arrangements, including ticket offices, information bu- 
reau, baggage and parcel rooms, telegraph offices, telephone 
booths, etc. The concourse is 375 feet long, 120 feet wide 
and 125 feet high to an arched roof, with farther extensions 
in the gallery at either end. It is a room finished in’ Botti- 
cino marble and buff tinted stone, three immense arched win- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 349 





dows on Depew Place and three on Vanderbilt Avenue oppo- 
site Forty-third Street forming the ends. The arched ceiling 
is painted turquoise blue, and presents a view of the section 
of the heavens as seen from October to March, or from Aqua- 
rius to Cancer. 

It would be beyond the scope of this history to give any- 
thing approaching an adequate description of these great ter- 








LOWER LEVEL CONCOURSE 
Grand Central Passenger Station, New York 


minals. Each is worthy of a separate detailed study. What 
is set down here must suffice to give the reader an inkling of 
the extensive and costly terminal stations demanded by the 
American public and justified by its growing patronage of 
the railways. The Washington Station is the only one that 
appears to be in advance of normal traffic, but there are occa- 
sions when it seems too small for the capital crowds that surge 
through its wide-swinging gates. 


Kansas City Union Station 


It is a far cry from the monumental passenger stations of 
the New York Central and the Pennsylvania in New York to 


350 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





the suburbs of Kansas City, where twelve great railway sys- 
tems have united in a terminal company to construct a station 
that will accommodate all the passenger business converging 
there from every point of the compass. It was in the suburbs 
of the city when it was conceived to obviate the inconven- 
iences of the old stations. It is about two miles southeast 
of the old Union Station and three blocks away from the 








KANSAS CITY UNION STATION 
Opened November 1, 1914 


Grand Avenue stations. Like all such improvements, it has 
had the effect of a magnet to attract civic traffic to a new 
center. 

The building of this Union Station was undertaken by 
the following systems: the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, 
the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the 
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee & 
St. Paul, «the:;Missourl, | Kansas\ tc5> Texas, the @Mie= 
souri~ Pacific, ithe “St.. \Louts-San |: Francisco; the, sUnion 
Pacific, the Wabash, the Chicago Great Western, and 
the Kansas City Southern—none of which had _ been 
heard of when the Pennsylvania, the New York Central and 
the Baltimore & Ohio were already the wonders of the East- 
ern railway world. The list embraced all the roads entering 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 351 





Kansas City in 1906, when the enterprise was first broached, 
and the original project included a new belt line around the 
north end of the city and an entirely new site. That site 
occupies -an area of 18 acres covered by the main building 
and train sheds—an area exceeeded only by the Pennsylvania 
and the New York Central stations in New York. 





PORTION OF WEST BOTTOM FREIGHT YARDS, KANSAS CITY 
Live Stock Exchange in Distance 


Although built by a terminal company, this station is of 
the pull through type—the tracks running straight through 
under the waiting room. It is constructed in the form of an 
inverted T, the main body of the station, being sideways to 
the tracks over which the stem extends. The station proper 
is 510 feet long by 150 feet wide, and rises to a height of 126 
feet above the plaza. 


On the west of the main buildings are the express buildings 
extending in a continuous stretch for more than 1,000 feet. 
The waiting room wing, which extends over the tracks, 
is 410 feet long and 165 feet wide. On either side of the main 


ye HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


waiting room are passages, called midways, in which are the 
stairways and elevators leading to the train platforms below. 
The train shed is 1,370 feet long and covers eight platforms 
serving 18 tracks, with provision for additional. 

The style of architecture is modern French and the ex- 
terior is finished in Bedford stone with granite base. The 
interior style is Louis XVI, with lobby walls of yellow Ka- 
sota. The floor is pink Kasota and gray Tennessee, with a 
black border. 

Nothing known to modern conveniences of a passenger 
station seems to have been omitted in making provision for 
the comfort-of the traveler... [he general character of layout 
and construction can be best understood from the accompany- 
ing illustrations. 


Passing of Famous Railway Builders 


Concurrent with the opening of these modern railway 
edifices, the transportation world was to lose the services of 
four leaders who for a generation had carried forward rail- 
way development with the courage and energy associated 
with the work of pioneers. Within fourteen years, 1906-1920, 
Alexander J. Cassatt, Edward H. Harriman, James J. Hill and 
‘Edward Payson Ripley passed into the history of American 
railways in which for the better part of half a century they 
had played a most commanding part. 

Mr. Cassatt, who died in 1906, did not live to see the com- 
pletion of the great work which was the crowning demon- 
stration of his exceptional sagacity and capacity as a railway 
engineer and executive. The double track tunnel under the. 
Hudson and the magnificent terminal in New York and the 
four tunnels under the East River and the great steel arch 
bridge over “Hell Gate,” connecting with the New Haven 
System, are the monumental memorials to his genius and fore- 
sight. The statue in the Pennsylvania Station fittingly com- 
memorates his services to that company and the transporta- 
tion industry. It bears the inscription, “Alexander Johnston 
Cassatt, President, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 1899- 
1906, whose foresight, courage and ability achieved the ex- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 


253 








tension of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad System in New 
York City.” Mr. Cassatt had 
enteream the service 4of #the 
Pennsylvania Railroad as a 
rodman in 1861 and so had 
spent forty-five years, the bet- 
ter part of his life, with it. 
Many would not classify 
Edward HH: Harriman «as a 
distinctively railroad person- 
eee aetadile sind <yet iat.the 
time of his death, in 1909, he 
was the foremost and most 
forceful figure in the trans- 
portation world. In a few 
years of his devotion to the 
business he had reconstructed 











Ay J CASSAT YT, “1840-1906 
Former President of Pennsylvania R. R. 


the Union Pacific, reorganized and consolidated the Southern 
Pacific and helped place the Illinois Central in the van of rail- 


way progress. 


= 











EDWARD H. HARRIMAN, 1848-1909 
Railway Financier & Reorganizer 





His one failure, which has been attended 


with severe criticism, left the 
Chicago & Alton an improved 
and rehabilitated but impov- 
erished common carrier in the 
fermtdryriteserves: a since: the 
Chicago & Alton was reor- 
ganized, in 1899, its carrying 
capacity has increased from 
2,244,227 passengers annually 
to 3,594,991 in 1920 and from 
3,251,585 “tons sof freight. to 
12,070,934 for the respective- 
years. Wherever Mr. Harri- 
man touched a piece of rail- 
way property the result was 
improved and more profitable 
servicerto the “public at -re- 


354 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








duced rates, even though, as in the case of the Alton, the 
road failed to realize net results. 
James Jerome Hill survived his more youthful com- 
petitor nearly seven years and 
when he died, in 1916, the 
whole Northwest, from Lake 
Michigan to Puget Sound, 
paid tribute to his energy and 
sagacity by crowning him 
“The Empire Builder.” The 
history of the prospecting, 
financing, construction and 
management of the Great 
Northern and the Northern 
Pacific systems is the story of 
Mr. Hill’s connection with 
these two transcontinental 
roads. He also was the fore- 
sighted projector of their 
practical consolidation with 
the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy. Beyond extending 
JAMES J. HILL, 1838-1916 his rails into the vast regions 
Late President Great Northern Railway of the West, Mr. Hill was the 
active promoter of the settlement of those regions with the 
farmers who were to provide the traffic for his roads, and then 
he saw to it that the settlers should have the advantage of 
seed and stock suitable for planting and breeding in their 
territory. The farmers lost a far-sighted counselor when Mr. 
Hill passed over the divide. 7 
Edward Payson Ripley, who came into the presidency of 
the Santa Fe when it was reorganized, in 1895, was the last 
survivor of this “big four’ that demonstrated in separate 
fields the four different types of leaders required in the de- 
velopment of railways to meet the varied requirements 
on a continent as large as ours. “Mr. Ripley was a man 
of comprehensive views, who at the same time had time 
and sympathy to spare on the human side of railway man- 





NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 359 





agement So he came to be affectionately known from Chi- 
cago to oan Diego as the “Old Man” of the Santa Fe. He 
established a sort of paternal relation with the thousands that 
worked under him and 
trusted to his judgment and 
sense of justice for a square 
deal all along the “Santa Fe,” 
which he knew from end to 
end. 7 

Preceding, contemporan- 
eous with and surviving these 
leading spirits in the land of 
railway achievement were 
and are Chauncey M. Depew 
and Marvin Hughitt, chair- 
man of the Board of Directors 
of the New York Central and 
the Chicago & North Western 
IOentecmetespectively, “Cheir 
knees have been under the 











; ’ E, P. RIPLEY, 1845-1920 
directors tables at the same Late President Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
time of these and other lead- Fe Railway 


ing roads for more than a generation. What Mr. Depew does 
not know about the legal and financial side of the railway busi- 
ness or Mr. Hughitt does not know of its constructive and 
operating side is scarcely worth trying to find out. For fully 
two generations they have watched the railways grow and 
participated in their development. Their joint reminiscences 
would make a priceless volume. If Mr. Depew could have 
found time to write this history, including his experiences 
with politics and politicians, the boys of America would have 
been entertained by a story teller and narrator equal to “Mark 
Twain,’ and if Mr. Hughitt had written it, it would have been 
the most authoritative work on practical railway management 
available to this generation of railway students. 

Both Mr. Depew and Mr. Hughitt are natives of New 
York State, having been born in the first decade of railway 
development in America described in the second chapter of 


356 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILVAAYS 





this history. Mr. Depew first saw light at Peekskill on the 
Hudson April 23, 1834. So he has passed his ninetieth birth 
anniversary as this is written. Three years later Mr. Hughitt 
was born at Genoa, on August 
Sinisa At “that @stiune 
Peekskill’s chief communica- 
tion with New York was by 
boat and it was a long walk 
or ride from Genoa) to™ the 
Erie» Canal long aivetee.i 
Hughitt was a sturdy urchin. 

Although Mr. Depew had 
the better of Mr. Hughitt in 
transportation facilities in his 
early years, the latter was the 
first to enter railway. service, 
which he did as a telegraph 
operator in his seventeenth 
year. That was two years 
before Mr. Depew graduated 
from Yale. Mr. Hughitt took 











CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
When: President of the NewsYork Gene  Hloraces Grecleysaadyicos aa 


Pe iver RR, in 1882) 
PERS ata ete Pees 8 came west in 1854, while Mr. 


Depew studied law, was admitted to the bar and in 1866 en- 
tered railway service as attorney for the New York & Harlem 
road, the predecessor of the New York Central on Manhattan 
Island, with which he has been identified ever since. 

It would be a fascinating task to follow step by step the 
carreer of these two men, so nearly coincident with the prog- 
ress of American railways from the laying of their first rails. 
The mere dates given above must suffice, but much of their 
lives and adventures can be pieced out from the preceding his- 
tory since 1856. They lived through all the transformation of 
the period, its struggles, panics and wonderful achievements. 
Mr. Hughitt has read the first eight chapters of this book and 
pronounced it worth while. He made a few minor corrections 
in the history of the early consolidation of the New York 
Central lines and to one paragraph he penned the remark: 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 357 





“This is pure fiction, and you are writing history.” The para- 
graph was modified and the reader robbed of an interesting 
espisode, which not knowing he will not miss. 

eMeOr portraits pO 1 Lt: 
Hughitt appear elsewhere in 
this history. 


In the Shadow of the Great 
War 


For ten years’ prior to 
gAmerica’s- entry into the 
Great War the railways had 
been slowly recovering from 
the -eftects of the panic of 
1907. When the Germans tn- 
vaded Belgium, after tearing 
up the “Scrap of Paper” that 

_ guaranteed its neutrality, 
American railways had barely 
got on their feet after the two 
lean: years 1911 and°1912; In 





CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 1834— _ 1913, for the first time in their 
Chairman Board, New York Central Rail- y . 
road—From. his latest photograph. history, the operating revenues, 


—Courtesy of Mr. Depew : ; 
aided by a 5 per cent rate raise 


in Central territory, had risen above the three billion mark ($3,- 
125,136,000), only to drop back in 1914 and 1915 as the first 
effects of the European convulsion and submarine depredations 
staggered our export trade. During those two years less 
than 180,000 freight cars and only 4,320 locomotives were 
built, including the Canadian output—not enough to replace 
the retirements on account of annual wear and tear. 

In 1915 the Commission decided what is known as the 
Western Rate Advance Case by granting the advances on 
certain commodities and denying them on others. It was a 
fifty-fifty decision, where Commissioners Daniels and Harlan, - 
in powerful dissenting opinions, held that “on the record the 
carriers have in general sustained the burden of proof cast 
upon them by the statute and are of right entitled to increases 


358 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


in rates productive of revenue far in excess of what they are 
accorded by this decision.” 

There was no opportunity to judge what would have been 
the effect of this half-loaf decision. Before it became opera- 
tive we were in the midst of the most active industrial boom 
that has ever been known in the United States. Where the 
total domestic exports in 1914 were valued at $2,071,057,744, 





TRIPLE, ARTICULATEDSDVPE w196 
Heaviest and Most Powerful Baldwin Locomotive Built to Date 


by 1916 they were valued at $5,422,642,505 and by 1917 at 
$6,169,617,225. In 1920, when these exports reached their 
peak in value, $8,080,480,821, they were divided, 48.33 per 
cent natural products and 51.67 per cent manufactures and 
miscellaneous. In 1919 the crude materials and foodstuffs 
constituted 54.85 per cent of the value exported. 

The share our railways played in this remarkable increase 
in our export trade is more faithfully represented in the fol- 
lowing figures of transportation by quantity, which was not 
affected by the rise in prices: 

Receipts per 


Year Tons Carried Carried 1 mile. ton mile 
(millions) (millions) (mills) 
JOT Seto syiines oUt seer 1,802 276,830 32 
1916) to2June 30.3.9.25% 2,186 342,494 7.14 
I9i6etoa Dec Slee ee, 2,283 365,034 P24 ioe 
ISTO Dec: Oller 2,362 394,040 Fis ioe 
LHS tos Decssol eck fe 2402558) 408,011 8.49 
1919 to Dec. 31.2... -.% 2121 375,884 9.73 
I9203to =Deecooly eres 2,305 411,151 10.52 
192 sto Der. Slee: 1,741 307,878 12:75 
19272) to°Dee 312s... oe 1,908 341,018 11.85 


iestineDac wali es 2.411 414 347 11.25 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 7 359 





While this table runs a little ahead of our story and will 
be referred to later, here it is used to demonstrate the ava- 
lanche of traffic that was launched on the railways in 1916 
and 1917 and how they rose to cope with it at the lowest aver- 
age freight receipts per ton mile in their history or the history 
of any other country. 

And right here the student of this great period in the 
world’s history should make note of the fact that while every 
profiteer in this broadi land, whether on farm or in factory or 
commercial life, was quick to seize upon the world’s needs to 
double and treble his profits, the railways up to the end of 
1917 were not permitted to share in the profligacy of war. 
The succession of low ton mile receipts 1915 to 1917, inclu- 
sive, absolves them from having taken advantage of the Euro- 
pean cataclysm. This is not saying that they would not have 
done so, only under the Commerce law they could not. 

But during those fateful years everybody took advantage 
of the railways. Between 1915 and 1917 the compensation 
of their employes was advanced from $1,272,392,851 to 
$1,781,027,002, or 40 per cent; individual pay from $825 per 
year to $1,001, or over 20 per cent. In the meantime the price 
of the same class of locomotives rose from $23,000 to $47,000; 
the passenger coach from $8,000 to $9,500 and freight cars 
from $800 to $1,200, and fuel from $1.13 to $2.07 per ton at 
the mines. 

The Adamson Law 


Embedded in the increase of $269,298,076 in the compen- 
sation of railway employes between 1916 and 1917 is the story 
of the surrender of the national administration to the threats 
of the four railway brotherhoods of a nation-wide strike. This 
surrender was the prelude to the passage of the so-called 
“Adamson law,” which eventually fastened the basic eight- 
hour day with time and a half for over time upon the rail- 
ways. The far-reaching effect of this law upon the economi- 
cal operation of the railways justifies a brief review of the 
controversy that resulted in its passage as a party measure. 

In February, 1916, the railway trainmen—engineers, fire- 
men, conductors and other trainmen—claiming to number 


360 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





400,000 men, where only 300,000 were employed, demanded 
for the freight service an eight-hour day without reduction 
of the existing wage for a ten-hour day and time and a half 
for over time. Conferences with the managers began June 
Ist. After two weeks of ineffectual parleys and after refus- 
ing to accept arbitration, the brotherhods ordered a strike 
vote and on August 8th announced that 90 per cent had. voted 
confirming the authority to strike. The following day the 
managers invoked the services of the United States Board 
of Mediation and Conciliation, which suggested: arbitration. 
This the men again refused. 

At this point the managers made public their view that 
the demands would increase the hourly pay 25 per cent and 
the over-time rate 871% per cent, and that the aggregate in- 
crease, if confined to the freight service alone, would be about 
$100,000,000 a year, which could not be paid without increas- 
ing passenger and freight rates. It was shown that the train- 
men constituted only 18 per cent of the employes but re- 
ceived 28 per cent of the total pay roll. 

Confronted with what he thought would be a disastrous 
strike, President Wilson intervened and on August 13th sum- 
moned the disputants to a conference in Washington. He 
proposed as a basis of agreement acceptance of the eight- 
hour day, a postponement of the over-time demand until its 
effects could be determined and the appointment of a com- 
mission to investigate and report on results. The brother- 
hoods, with some reservations, accepted the President’s. sug- 
gestions, but the managers balked, declaring that the eight-. 
hour day was not intended to reduce the hours of labor but 
merely sought to increase wages. They made counter pro- 
posals in the nature of a compromise for a commission to 
determine the effect of an eight-hour day.. This was put : 
forward on August 28, but the brotherhoods had already | 
issued a strike order, effective September 4. When the Presi- - 
dent requested its withdrawal, he was told that the committee 
which alone could do so had dispersed to their posts to put it 
into effect. Confronted by.an emergency, on August 29th the 
President appeared before the houses of Congress. and in a. , 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 361 


fervid message urged the passage of an act that would avert 
what he regarded as an impending national calamity. He 
recommended (1) the enlargement of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission; (2) an eight-hour day for all employes 
engaged in the operation of trains; (3) the creation of a 
commission to study the effects on the cost of operation; 
(4) an expression of approval by Congress if the findings of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission justified an increase of 
freight rates; (5) a provision making all railway strikes un- 
lawful until official investigation had been made, and (6) a 
provision empowering the. President to draft railroad em- 
ployes into service when required by military necessity. 

On September 2, after a most perfunctory discussion, 
Congress passed the Adamson Act, which embodied only 
items 2 and 3 of the President’s suggestions. In the Senate 
Mr. La Follette was the only Republican to vote for the bill, 
which Mr. Mann, Republican leader in the House, opposed as 
an enactment that for the purpose of compensation eight 
hours shall be a day’s labor without any intention of shorten- 
ing the hours of labor. 

An analysis of the act shows that it does not limit the 
working day of railroad employes engaged in the movement 
of trains in interstate commerce to eight hours. Instead it 
provides that their wages shall be based upon a day of eight 
hours with pro rata over-time pay for whatever time in ex- 
cess of eight hours they may work. It is a wage statute 
rather than an eight-hour day law. 

The act further provides that the employes should be paid 
for over time not less than the pro rata for such standard 
eight hours of work. The punitive time and a half for over 
time was yet to come. 


pet ealjooi 


The year 1917 was pregnant with baffling conditions for 
American railways. It opened with traffic ranging higher 
than had ever been known before at that season of the year. 
The revenues for January stood at $311,000,000—an increase 


362 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





of $43,000,000, or 16 per cent, over the corresponding month 
in 1916, the previous high record for the month, and a clear 
$100,000,000 or 47.4 per cent above the operating revenues 
for January 1910, when a very high level had been registered. 


The returns on revenue accurately reflect the volume of 
traffic during this period because the range of freight receipts 
per ton mile 1915 to 1917 was practically stationary at 7.22, 
7.07 and 7.15 mills. 

Beginning with January, railway right of way and rolling 
stock was taxed to its utmost. There was a continual short- 
age of freight cars—ranging from 62,247 in January up to 
148,627 in May and receding to 33,776 in August, contrary to 
the seasonal current of shortages. 


It is important that the student should take note of the 
trend of railway shortages at this time in their relation to the 
entry of the United States into the World War, which dates 
officially from the Declaration by Congress, signed by the 
President on April 6, and the taking over of the railways by | 
President Wilson on December 27, 1917. Beginning with. 
April, the car shortages, by months, were as follows: 


April 44.797 September 34,605 
May 148,627 October 70,380 
June 106,649 November 140,000 
July 77,682 December 117,132 
August 33,776 


Immediately upon the Declaration of War, the railways 
adopted a national policy to co-operate with the Government 
in expediting its military operations. A Special Committee 
on National Defense, with a membership of 28 of the leading 
railway executives, was organized, which in turn appointed 
an executive committee of five, known as the Railroads’ War 
Board, which took active charge of the railway war organi- 
zation, beginning in April, 1917. lt consisted of the follow- 
ing members: 

Fairfax Harrison, president of the Southern Railway, 
chairman; Julius Kruttschnitt, chairman of the Executive 
Committee of the Southern Pacific Company; Samuel Rea, 
president of the Pennsylvania System; Hale Holden, presi- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 363 


dent. of = the -Chicago, - Burlington. & Quincy: Railroad, 
and Howard Elliott, chairman of, the Northern Pacific 
Railway. In its task of co-ordinating the operation of the 
railways the War Board was 
greatly assisted by the co- 
operation of Interstate Com- 
missioner Edgar E. Clark, 
who after its organization at- 
tended its meetings and 
brought to its counsels the 
advantage of close association 
with the Commission, of 
which at that time he was 
chairman. 

This Board was con- 
fronted at its inception by a 
shortage of over 140,000 
freight cars, resulting prin- 
cipally from a dearth of ship- 
ping at the principal ports to 
handle the products rushed to 
the coast for export. Instead 

: EDGAR E. CLARK 
of being unloaded with nor- Ex-Interstate Commerce Commissioner 
mal promptness, loaded freight cars were held for days before 
being released for further service. 

The situation became so serious that on May 29 Congress 
stepped in and by way of relief conferred stringent powers 
on the Interstate Commerce Commission whenever the situa- 
tion called for action, “with or without notice, hearing or the 
making or filing of a report,” to suspend any car service rules 
then in effect and instead issue whatever directions concern- 
ing car service that might seem to be in the public interest. 
The Commission was also intrusted, after hearing, to establish 
reasonable rules, regulations and practices in respect to car 
service. 

The Commission and the Railroads’ War Board, acting in 
unison, were able to effect an instant improvement in the car 
situation, as the reduction in the car shortage from 148,627 











— 4 





364 ALS TORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


in May to 33,776 in August testified. But the free and sys- 
tematic movement of traffic was retarded and sometimes 
blocked by the misuse of the priority privilege, not only for 
war materials but for other 
descriptions of freight. Prior- 
ity was all right for certain 
commodities, but as priority 
became general it defeated its 
own purpose. 

This*led: to the-enactirent 

of what was known as the 
priority amendment to the 
Commerce Act.-- By 1€ pro- 
vision was made that during 
the continuance of the war in 
Europe the president might 
for purposes of national de- 
fense and security direct that 
certain kinds of traffic shall 
have preference or priority in 
transportation whether by 
bon See rail, water or otherwise. The 
. V.-P. Penn. Ry. President could issue such 
directions through the Commission or any person or persons 
designated by him. ‘This act also penalized the interference 
with the orderly movement of trains by physical force, in- 
timidation or threats. 

At this time the membership of the Commission was 
increased to nine and it was authorized to divide itself into 
divisions with jurisdiction to exercise the powers of the Com- 
mission with certain restrictions and requirements. 

Out of the lack of preparedness and disorder that attended 
America’s entrance into the war, amid such an industrial and 
military rush as had never been known, the railways during 
the second half of 1917 rose to function with most amazing. 
efficiency—amazing because for a whole decade they had been 
denied the revenues essential to progressive equipment for 
the increasing demands of transportation. Every element en 





NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 365 





tering into their operation—wages, material and money for 
additions and improvements—cost more, and the last was 
becoming harder to get with Liberty bond issues marketed by 
the billion. With the call to arms this Nation became a hive 
for the ‘recruiting; »arming, 
equipping and transportation 
of an army that swelled from 
190,000 to over a million be- 
fore the end of the year ‘and 
was beginning to land in 
France. ‘The first contingent 
defying the submarine peril 
had crossed the Atlantic in 
July, ue) by January 1, 176,- 
000 were “over there,” the ad- 
vance guard of the two mil- 
lion American soldiers that 
were to share the honor of 
Armistice Day, November 1J, 
1918; and two million more 
were training and straining to 
get across. 

The story of our participa- 
tiem ine thes’ VWVorld” “War, 
of how we made our own port Vice “President Pennsylvania, R. R. 
in France with accommoda- inition and ‘operation U, ‘$" Military 
tions for scores of ocean eee ee ee 
steamships at a time; of how we built more than 
700 miles of double track, with freight yards greater 
than the largest on the continent, and set up our own system 
of telegraph and telephone, and how, in W. W. Atterbury of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, America furnished the director 
of construction and operation of our military railways in 
France—these and their’ related facts—constitute the skel- 
eton for another story which is one of the brightest Sage 
in the history of pect S Deep attOn in that war “for all 
We nave aidrare), 





W. W. ATTERBURY, 1866— 


366 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The United States expended over $612,000,000 under 
Director General of Military Railways Samuel M. Felton, 
President of the Chicago Great Western Ry., upon the rails, 
rolling stock and railway construction in France as its con- 
tribution to saving it from the Hun invasion. 

Here it can truthfully be said that in the United States 
the railways, handicapped by ten years of inadequate rates, 
with equipment that gaped at the seams, with many of its 
best men drafted into military service and hobbled with re- 
strictive laws, carried on a traffic that in the nine months be- 
tween April 1 and December 31 increased over 12 per cent 
over the same period in 1916, itself a record of performance. 
For the full year of 1917 the record of the railways compared 
with the years preceding it was as follows: 


Freight tons Passengers 
carried 1 mile carried | mile 
(millions): (millions) 

1917 to Dec. 31.... 394,040 39,739 
1916 tol Deescols ew. 605,034 35,007 
1916 to June 30.... .342,494 34,228 
1915 to June 30.... 276,830 32,384 
1914 to June 30.... 288,320 35,258 


The Government Takes Over the Railways 


Such was the demonstrated efficiency of American rail- 
ways at the close of 1917, when President Wilson, misled by 
the clamor of a coterie of Government ownership agitators, 
issued his proclamation assuming control of the entire trans- 
portation system. Acting on a baseless claim that a great 
national necessity existed, he based his action on the Act of 





HEAVY FREIGHT ENGINE OF 1918 


Weight loaded, Engine and Tender, 898,000 lbs. Built by American Locomotive Co. 
for the Virginian Ry. Co.- 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 367 





August 29, 1916, which authorized the President in time of 
war “through the Secretary of War” to assume control of the 
transportation system for the transportation of troops, war 
materials and equipment to the exclusion, as far as may be 
necessary, of all other traffic. 

Obeying the letter of the Act that possession of the rail- 
ways should be taken over through the Secretary of War, at 
noon of December 28th Newton D. Baker assumed such con- 
trol to the end that they should be utilized for the transporta- 
tion of troops, etc. But at that point the Secretary of War faded 
from the emergency picture and Mr. William G. McAdoo, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman of the Federal Reserve 
Bank syste, of thes! ederal Farm “Loan Board and ‘of the 
United States Section of the International High Commission, 
was “appointed and designated Director General of Rail- 
roads.” In this same proclamation, without consulting the 
owners of the property, it was decreed that they should accept 
the average of their net operating income for the three-year 
period ending June 30, 1917, “as a just and reasonable com- 
pensation.” Whoever suggested the inclusion of the lean 
year to June 30, 1915, in this test period robbed American 
railway owners of at least $100,000,000 a year while the guar- 
antee lasted. Had the last year preceding our entrance into 
the war been chosen, as was done in England, the compensa- 
tion would have been approximately $1,050,000,000 instead 
of $940,000,000. 

Accompanying his proclamation, President Wilson issued 
a statement which was intended to reassure the holders of 
railway securities, as follows: 

“Investors in railway securities may rest assured that 
their rights and interests will be as scrupulously looked after 
by the Government as they could be by the directors of the 
several systems.” 

On January 4, in his message to Congress, President Wil- 
son said: 

“The group of railway executives who were charged with 
the task of actual co-ordination and general direction of the 


368 HUIS LORY “OPMTAMERICAN- RAILVCAAY S 





railways performed their difficult duties with patriotic zeal 
and marked ability, as was to have been expected, and did, 
] believe, everything that it was possible for them to do in the 
circumstances. If I have taken the task out of their hands, 
it has not been because of any dereliction or failure on their 
part, but only because there were some things which the 
Government can do and private management cannot. We 
shall continue to value most highly the advice and assistance 
of these gentlemen and I am sure we shall not find them with- 
olen grin ere ee 

“The common administration will be carried out with as 
little disturbance of the present operating organizations and 
personnel of the railways as possible. Nothing will be altered 
or disturbed which it is not necessary to disturb.” 

On the last day of 1917 the Railroads’ War Board, that had 
co-ordinated the operations of the railways since April 11 of 
that year under authority from the principal companies of the 
country so successfully, finding its occupation gone under Mr. 
McAdoo’s order No. 1, placed its resignation in his hands. 
It was accepted with alacrity. In its place. Mr. McAdoo se- 
lected the following Advisory Cabinet: 


JoHa, Skelian® Wilbams vas eae 02 eee Comptroller of the Currency 
Kale bloiden: 26s ssi2: President, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. 
Henry WValters 0... Rok Seek Chairman, Atlantic Coast .Line shea 
Edward*Champbers.: >. :; Vice-Pres., Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. 
Walkers Dadi inese icant Chairman, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. 


Mr. Hines occupied the position of assistant to Director 
‘General McAdoo. Mr. R. S. Lovett, who had been Director 
of Priorities under the Railroads’ War Board, was appointed 
head of the Division of Capital Expenditures. But the ap- 
pointments that boded no good for the railways nor for any 
economical success of government operation were the desig- 
nation of W. S. Carter, Grand Chief of the Brotherhood of 
Railway firemen, as. Director5of Jeabor, with] GoW 
Hanger as his chief assistant. 

The appointments of Regional Directors, seven in num- 
ber, were admirable, and if Mr. McAdoo had possessed the 
true impulses and intuitions of a great commander and left 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 369 


the details of management in their hands, under his single- 
minded administrative co-ordination, the experiment of Gov- 
ernment operation of 240,000 miles of railway might have had 
a very different sequel. 

Congress lost little time in putting the stamp of legislative 
approval on President Wilson’s railway policy and promises. 
By the Act of March 21 it indorsed the basis of compensation 
and Federal return to be ascertained and certified by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission; it provided that the prop- 
erty of each carrier should be maintained and “returned to it 
in substantially as good repair and in substantially as good 
equipment as it was at the beginning of Federal control.” 

Under its provisions the President was authorized to in- 
itiate rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations and 
practices which should not be suspended by the Commission 
pending their final determination, thus abrogating for the 
time being a process that had made the advancing of rates 
subject to suspension and interminable delay even where ulti- 
mately validated. 


The final sections of this Act are enlightening: 


“Sec. 15. That nothing in this Act shall be construed to amend, 
repeal, impair or affect the existing laws or powers of the states in 
relation to taxation or the lawful police regulations of the several 
states, except wherein such laws, powers or regulations may affect 
the transportation of troops, war materials or Government supplies, 
or the issues of stocks or bonds. 

“Sec. 16... That this Act is expressly declared to be emergency 
legislation, enacted to meet conditions growing out of war; and 
nothing herein.is to be construed as expressing or prejudicing the 
future policy of the Federal Government concerning the ownership, 
control or regulation of carriers or the methods or basis of the 
capitalization thereof.” 


Once charged with irresponsible authority over American 
railways, Mr. McAdoo lost no time in proceeding to exercise 
it. No infant finding himself in possession of a new toy ever 
set to work to tear it to pieces to see the wheels go ‘round 
with more gleeful alacrity than did the Director General of 
Railroads when they were placed in his hands. With the 
Railroads’ War Board out of the way, orders flew from and 
reports poured into Washington in a bewildering cloud that 
no man could number. Computing machines were needed to 


370 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


count them. Something like 400 of the most capable men in 
railway service were discharged to make room for their hand- 
picked successors owing their advancement to Mr. McAdoo. 
Every scrap of paper upon which there was space to print 
it bore the official imprint: 


United States Railroad Administration 
(W. G. McAdoo, Director General) 


The two million railway employes were thus officially 
notified that they must know no other god but ME. 

The real test and proof of the bureaucracy headed by Mr. 
McAdoo came in his two orders Nos. 27 and 28, issued May 
26th and 27th, respectively. The necessity, misnamed emer- 
gency, behind these two orders can be best explained by the 
following statement of the earnings and expenses of Class 1 
roads for the first six months of Federal control: 


1918 Revenues Expenses Ratio kate 
1918 1917 

ihaniiary ssc ee ees $ 285,083,748 -$ 270,756,750 94.97 71.63 
Bebruatye oe". oe 289,683,833 260,590,900 89.96 78.31 
Marclt. str cieeetad) 365,912,476 283,428,186 LL AG oF 22) 
Abbe. oi ee ele 370,614,729 280,655,455 f Oc) end CaS 
May See Tee 378,242,104 285,523,303 75.49 69.00 
tibet whoa, Gree ee 393,309,379 435,096,305 110.62 67.37 


Ci Otal Oates. aes 2,081,448,000  1,815,706,527 S720 et Joe 
(a) The footings are from the official final summary for June 


and differ slightly from the footings of the monthly returns. 

To the trained railway manager or financier the one thing 
called for by the condition revealed in these official figures 
was an advance in rates sufficient to take care of the expenses 
as they existed, already running wild. But Mr. McAdoo 
thought otherwise. In January he had appointed a Railroad 
Wage Commission to investigate and report on the question 
of wages and hours of service of railroad employes; but when 
the time came to act he “felt obliged to depart from its recom- 
mendations in some particulars.” He departed about $300,- 
000,000 worth. In what “particulars” General Order No. 
27 does not vouchsafe. Beginning with employes earning 
$46 or under per month, the order added 43 per cent, or $20, 
to the monthly pay and from that point up to those receiving 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 371 


$250 the per cent was on a descending scale until it yielded 
$l for the man receiving $249. There were many exceptions 
and variations from this method of raising wages, but its 
ultimate effect, with changes in working conditions, was to 
raise the average pay of all employes from $1,001 in 1917 to 
$1,480 in 1919. As the pay roll had in the meantime been 
increased by 180,546 employes, the total compensation rose 
from $1,739,482,142 to $2,843,128,432, or over a billion dollars, 
with 18 billion less tons of freight carried one mile. Com- 
pared with 1916, before the Adamson law went into effect, the 
total compensation of railway employes showed an increase 
of over 90 per cent. 

How Mr. McAdoo or his successor, Mr. Walker D. Hines, 
ever expected to catch up with such an unprecedented ad- 
vance in wages, accompanied with an equal or greater advance 
in the price of coal, materials and supplies, with an advance 
of 33 per cent in freight rates and 25 per cent in passenger 
fares, as they finally worked out, passes understanding. True, 
the Railroad Wage Commission had estimated the cost of its 
recommendations at “not less than $300,000,000 in the year 
1918,” never anticipating an addition of nearly 200,000 five- 
dollar a day emergency workers to the railway ranks. 

As if the inadequacy of the raise in rates to meet the ad- 
vance in wages was not enough to stagger the revolving fund 
of $500,000,000 provided in the Act of March 21, the wage 
rate was made retroactive to January 1, 1918, whereas the 
advance in rates and fares could be and were only made effec- 
tive on June 25 and 10, respectively. 

These momentous changes were fully reflected in the sig- 
nificant items of the income account for 1918, Class 1 roads 
under Federal control, as follows: 


Revenue from operation........ $4,850,991 ,008 
Operatwied expenses 2.4.4. ave e's 3,948,192,102 
Dy aes el AR Oa (OEE ates mrvane terse es 183,177,868 
Rent of equipment and facilities 35,903,074 

Net operating income...... 683,717,964 
Compensation paid railways.... 893,310,130 


CrovetiiitentetOSs 0. .% << ss ce sss 209,592,166 


a72 HISTORY, OF: AMERICAN; RAILWAYS 





For all railways taken over the Government loss was over 
$Z 12,000,000. 

Before 1919 was half spent the two revolving funds— 
$750,000,000 had been added to the original $500,000,000— 
had dissolved, vanished into thin air, leaving nothing but a 
vacuum in which to revolve. Where Mr. McAdoo’s Commis- 
sion had estimated that the raise in wages would increase 











HEAVY BALDWIN ARTICULATED MALLET LOCOMOTIVE 
Built for the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. in 1919 


the railway pay roll to $2,205,432,938, the actual figures were 
$2,606,284,245. But it did not stop there. Under the foster- 
ing “care-of aMirt Carter, Director ola baboreet Tesco 
$2,828,014,440 in 1919 and to $3,681,801,193 in 1920, when the 
Railroad Labor Board lent a boosting hand. : 

But if Mr. McAdoo was open-handed in spending revolving 
funds on labor, he proved niggard when he faced the equip- 
ment situation. Confronted by a shortage of 135,000 freight 
cars in March, 1918, he ordered 1,415 locomotives and 100,000 
freight cars, standardized, when the immediate need was. 
10,000 locomotives and 250,000 freight cars adapted to meet 
the varying conditions of climate, terrain and traffic require- 
ments of 240,000 miles of line. Subsequently he increased 
his order of locomotives by 600, but that order of freight cars 
stood throughout Federal control, whereas at least 100,000 
cars are destroyed or incapacitated every year. 

This failure to recognize the sound rule of railway man- 
agement that demands more installments than retirements, 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 aos 3 


in which obsolescent cars must be included, left the railways 
to cope with the unprecedented traffic of 1920 confronted by 
a car and motive power shortage that lasted from January 
untu >the “btisiness sdepression set.in, in December.:: The 
promise of the President and the authorizing Act of mainte- 
nance and good order return were ignored for the twenty-six 
months of Federal control. 








BALDWIN MIKADO TYPE OF 1920 
Built for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. 


On December 31, 1918, Mr. McAdoo deserted the labor- 
logged ship, handing over the administration to his assistant, 
Walker D. Hines, who, like his predecessor, was a lawyer and 
not an experienced operating railway official. What Mr. 
Hines might have achieved had the original crushing respon- 
sibility fallen on him cannot be guessed. The whole train 
was running down hill at an accelerating pace when he en- 
tered the cab and he had no sand to put on the track. Mr. 
Hines went on the principlé that there is a bottom to every 
hill and that for every down grade there must be an up grade. 
One of his first orders (January 6, 1919) was an interpretation 
of General Order No. 27 that it should apply to all railway 
employes “earning less than $250 per month in December, 
1915,” and “Where such persons have not been granted the 
increases provided for in General Order No. 27 such increases 
will be made applicable retroactive to January 1, 1918, and 
until suspended by supplement thereto.” 

Confronted with the alternative of meeting deficits with 
an increase of rates or a reduction of wages, he did neither. 
He granted increases of wages and entered into agreements 


374 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


that raised them still higher. He postponed the advance in 
rates the situation demanded with sanguine prognostications 
that improved business would insure sufficient earnings. 
With strange inconsistency he prophesied a traffic that would 
tax facilities and refused to add a locomotive or a freight car 
to the inadequate orders issued by Mr. McAdoo. 

The record of locomotives and cars actually built in the 
three years 1919, 1920: and 1921 stands *as an andicimen acs 
the Federal administration as executor of its trust: 


Year Locomotives Passengerears Freight cars 
1919 2,162 466 101372 
1920 2 022 1,272 60,955 


1921 1185 1,636 48,696 


The provision of power and carrying capacity fell at least 
4,000 locomotives and 300,000 freight cars short of what pru- 
dent management required. Moreover, the locomotives and 
cars actually built, especially the former, were largely on 
orders given previously by the railway corporations them- 
selves. 
| Second Year of Federal Control 

The financial returns for the second year of Government 
control were more disappointing than the first, as the follow- 
ing statement of Class 1 roads under Federal control shows: 


Revenues trot Operation. 2 mae. oe tae eee ‘ee oo Let ooS 2uy 
Paxpenses #68) operdtionr2 54.1. gen eons Sees 4,360,136,355 
PRES ce Sie ae ce See bee ote eee eae 195,763,096 
Rent of €quipmentandriaciities mae, son ae 33,179,485 

Wethoperatinge imcomen © ev acerrinaee 535: 516.3741 
Compensation “paid the -railways-..).4:...45 911,495,342 
Government loss on operation, 1919......:. 375,978,971 
Government loss on. operation, 1918........ 209,592,166 
Government loss on operation, two years.. 585,571,137 


This covered only Class 1 roads, where the total for all 
roads taken over, some 240,000 miles, called for a yearly com- 
pensation of about $940,000,000. The loss to the Government 
on operation alone for the two years was therefore in the 
neighborhood of $650,000,000. 

To this must be added the $381,000,000 paid by the Gov- 
ernment for its inadequate replacement orders of locomotives 


and freight cars in 1918 and 1919 and $763,000,000 for “addi- 


NIN TEIDE CADE, 1910-1920 375 


tions and betterments,” all finally added to railway capitaliza- 
tion with little tangible to show for it. 

That was the situation at the close of 1919, when the war 
had been over more than a year, and the Federal: Railway 
Administration has never given any comprehensive account 
of its stewardship, the figures given above having been ex- 
tracted from the annual and monthly statistics of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission. 





A 400-TON SANTA FE LOCOMOTIVE 


As the time for relinquishment of the railroads under the 
metsor March 21. 1918, approached, it became a matter, of 
grave concern how it could be accomplished without involv- 
ing serious consequences to the commerce and industry of the 
country as well as the railways. The Act provided that Fed- 
eral control should not continue beyond “one year and nine 
months next following the date of the proclamation by the 
President of the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of 
Heace.« | 

The war ended on November 11, 1918, the date of the 
armistice; but the treaty between the Allied Powers and Ger- 
many was not signed until June 28, 1919. On December 24 
President Wilson issued a proclamation turning back the 
railroads to private control on March 1, 1920. January 1 had 
been originally fixed, but owing to the necessity for legisla- 
tive action the latter date was chosen. The Esch-Cummins 
or Transportation Act of February 28, 1920, was the legisla- 
tion referred to. This extended the Government guarantee 
to the amount of the Federal return for six months after the 
owners resumed control—that is, until September 1, 1920, 
when everything in the nature of a guarantee ended. 


376 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The Transportation Act of 1920 


The Esch-Cummins Act, officially known as the “Trans: 
portation Act of 1920,” went far beyond safeguarding public 
and railway interests during the so-called transition period. 
Under “Title II, Termination of Federal Control,” the general 
provisions of the Act of March 21, 1918, were made applicable 
to what was termed the “guaranty period,” to wit: the “six 
months beginning March 1, 1920.” The railways were to be 
operated by their owners during that period—the difference 
between their net operating income or deficit and the Federal 
return fixed by the “test period” to be paid by or to the Gov- 
ernment, as finally adjusted by the Commission. This guar- 
antee was conditional on its acceptance by the individual 
carriers on or before March 15th. Acceptance was general, 
the Southern Railway being the chief exception, preferring 
to take its profit or loss on operation to compensation on a 
basis it deemed inadequate. Financially the Southern lost 
out on this show of independence, for it suffered in common 
with all the railways from the deluge of expenses that broke 
all records in the year 1920. But it had its compensations in 
freedom in adjustments. This year proved the culmination 
of wage advances and expensive working conditions that ran. 
wild under the politico-economic theories in the saddle cf 
Federal control. Although the railways were operated under 
the terms of the Act of February 28, 1920, for the greater 
part of that year, they inherited the conditions prevailing 
throughout 1918 and 1919, when the National treasury was 
drawn upon to make good the results of wasteful mismanage- 
ment. The following condensed income account tells the 
StOTV=. 

Class I Roads 1920 


Operatinetfevenues?. ttt $6,234,264,201 
Operating <expensés> 0 t. o. 5,886,573,383 
CARES. cl te eR ee Wee are 274,808,339 
Rent of equipment and facilities 60,247,341 
Net operating income.:........ 12,635,138 
Eight months guarantee...:.... 613,000,000 
Government ‘1l6ssH.9% Leese, 601, 635, 138 


But for the presence of some fifty to sixty aillion back 
mail pay in the revenues of 1920, there would have been a 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 377 


deficit instead of a net operating income of $12,635,138. The 
total loss of the Government on its thirty-two months’ guar- 
‘antee was approximately as follows: 


SARs URS A St a Baer $ 209,592,166 
TERT ies Sees giderbicie ey as ks 585 5715137, 
1920 (8 months to Sept. 1) 601,635,138 

Gta tase LIONS 2... 3s sr. 1,396,798,441 


As these figures cover only Class 1 roads, the total loss to 
the Government on all roads taken over was considerably 
greater. A proposal to extend the trial of Federal control for 
an additional five years, which was strongly urged by Director 
General McAdoo and his successor, Mr. Hines, met with 
little popular support, and so, on September 1, 1920, the rail- 
ways went back into full regulated private operation. 

In a recent address before the Carnegie Institute of Tech- 
nology, Arthur T. Hadley, President Emeritus of Yale Uni- 
versity and one of the few lay authorities on transportation 
subjects, discussing Federal control, said: “For a time Mr. 
McAdoo and those about him thought that he could prove 
the possibility of solving the railroad problem by taking the 
decisive powers of the management out of the hands of the 
Owes te". < Fi he: verdictwas. against himes During 
nearly two years which elapsed after the close of the war no 
attempt was made to balance the railroad budget. Of the 
three ways of doing this—to increase rates, to reduce wages, 
or to get the same amount of work done by the smaller num- 
ber of men—the Government lacked the courage’ to choose 
any. The result was an appalling deficit.” 


Decreased Mileage 


During the concluding years of this decade the courtry 
witnessed the unusual phenomenon of an actual decrease in 
the mileage of American railways. Between 1916 and 1920 
the miles of line owned, as reported by the Commission, were 
as follows: 


191l6stosJunevs0< 7.2 <. 254,250 miles 
tole lO WeC re alee. «ares 253,626 miles 
Tote tos etetal set shoe. 253,528 miles 
1919sfoe Ded 31. 253,152 miles 


TOU OE ICC, Ol. esa sss 252,844 miles 


378 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





GROWTH OF 
STEAM Locomotive 1837-1918 





Sendusky Built for Mad River & 
Total Weight Loaded Engine 6 











"Gover oF Marcy Built for Michigan Southern on 
Tote! Weight Loaded Engine & Tender 67000 Los 





Built for Hudson River AR in 1860. 
Toto! Weight Loaded Engine & Tenaer 
















Al ot 
ie aaneme=s il 








Saas 


Built for New York Ponnay' no AR in 1880 
Total Weight Loaded Engine 6 Tender u 








| pote) 5 Sarg Reds AT ROE OFAC OCS = oy 


Built for St Louis, Vencalie & Torre Heute (Vandalie Line) in 1895 
Tote) Weight Looded Engine & Tender 219000 Lbs 







phe aes aw ee | 
LOU)? werd. csc outs Oe A Pe Ree SSO. Acie O00 CO ORES STO 








Built for Missours Pacific R Rin 1902 
Tots! Weight Loaded. Engine 4 Tender 283000 Lbs 


a ON OM ORS 





Bum for Balumore & On c 
Tota! Weight Loaded Engine & Tender £74000 Los 





EO tee eves acta ee ores ak betes 






Built for Cresepeeke & Ohio Ry in iit 
Tote! Weight Loaded Engine & Tender 493000 Lba 


Beever Virgen fy so aay 
Tole! Weight Loaded, Engine 6 Tender 88000 Lbe 


NINTH DECADE, 1910-1920 379 





Happily, the decline in single track was accompanied by 
an increase of 3,030 miles of auxiliary track and 9,686 miles of 
yard track and sidings. 

The remarkable exhibit on page 378 was drawn to scale 
for this work by the American Locomotive Company. The 
counterpart of each of these nine locomotives, separately 
illustrated, will be found in the text of the decade 
to which it belongs. Thus assembled, these locomotives give 
a convincing picture of the process by which American rail- 
ways have risen to their powerful position in the transporta- 
tion world. It is expressed in the contrast between the 18,000 
Ib. giant of 1837 and 898,000 Ib. giant of 1918. A correspond- 
ing growth in inhabitants would have given the United States 
a population of over 850,000,000! 

As for the “Sandusky,” which tops this impressive pyramid 
of locomotive progress, President Fletcher of the American 
Locomotive Company believes that it was never photographed 
but furnishes the spirited drawing, which is reproduced in its 
appropriate place. 

Past, Present and ? 





THE ABORIGINE MAKES WAY FOR THE LOCOMOTION 
—Scene in Apache Canon, N, M. 


CHAPTER XI 
OPENING OF THE TENTH DECADE—1920 


AFTERMATH OF FEDERAL CONTROL. PASSAGE OF THE TRANS- 
PORTATION Act, 1920. Raitroap Lasor Boarp MAKES 
IMMEDIATE ADVANCE IN WAGES AND THE COMMISSION 
ADVANCES RATES. 


ITH the return of the railways to private control dis- 
posed of in Title II of the Transportation Act, 1920, 
the statute proceeded to make 
radical changes in the regula- 
tion of American railways. 
The first of these, Title III, 
was aimed at the prevention 
of any interruption of the 
operation of any carrier grow- 
ing out of any dispute be- 
tween it and its employes. 
Such disputes, if possible, 
were to be decided in confer- 
ence between the representa- 
tives of the carriers and their 
employes “directly interested 
in the dispute’. In case such 
conference failed to decide 
the dispute, provision was 








MAIN HALL CHICAGO UNION 
STATION, OCTOBER, 1924 made for its reference to 


boards of labor adjustment and finally to the Railroad Labor 
Board established under the Act. 

This Board, which was the new departure under the Act, 
was to be composed of nine members—(1) three, to be known 
as the Labor group, to be appointed by the President, sub- 
ject to confirmation by the Senate, from not less than six 
nominees made by the employes as prescribed by the Com- 
mission; (2) three, to be known as the Management group, 
to be appointed in the same way from not less than six nomi- 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 38) 


nees named by the carriers as prescribed by the Commission, 
and (3) three, to be known as the Public group, to be ap- 
pointed by the President subject to confirmation by the 
Senate. 

The Act specifically provided that any member of the 
Board who during his term of office is an active member or 
holds office in any organization of employes or any carrier 





COAL CARS—PAST AND PRESENT 
Philadelphia & Reading R. R. 


or owns any stock or bonds thereof, shall become ineligible 
for further membership upon the Board. This provision was 
a dead letter from the start, so far as several Labor members 
of the Board were concerned. 

In addition to jurisdiction over disputes coming to it 
through the indicated channels, the Board was authorized 
upon its own motion to receive and hear and with due dili- 
gence decide any dispute involving wages or salaries or griev- 
ances or rules and working conditions likely substantially to 
interrupt commerce. Decisions of the Board require the con- 
currence of at least five members, of whom, in certain cases 
at least, one shall be a member of the Public group. 

In determining the justness and reasonableness of wages 
in any dispute the Board, so far as applicable, shall take into 
consideration, among other relevant circumstances, the fol- 
lowing: | 

(1) The scale of wages paid for similar kinds of work in 
other industries; 

(2) The relation between wages and the cost of living; 


382 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


(3) The hazards of the employment; 

(4) The training and skill required; 

(5) The degree of responsibility ; 

(6) The character and regularity of the employment; and 

(7) dnequalities of increases in wages or of treatment, 
the result of previous wage orders or adjustments. 

The Board was given no authority to enforce its decisions 





200-TON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE of 1924 
Length Inside Knuckles 68 ft. 2% in. 


farther than through their publication and the force of public 
opinion, in which respect the Act followed the principle so 
successfully invoked in the original state regulation in Massa- 
chusetts. Decisions were effective only as the facts and rea- 
soning behind them appealed to the public as convincing and 
just. 

Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act 


Title IV of the Transportation Act, 1920, consisted of 
numerous amendments to the Commerce Act, the most im- 
portant of which was known as “Section 15a,” which formu- 
lated rules for rate making. Under it the Commission was 
empowered to. prescribe just and reasonable rates, so that the 
carriers as a whole or in groups would, “under honest, eff- 
* cient and economical management,” earn a net annual railway 
operating income equal to a fair return on the aggregate value 
of the carriers’ property held for and used in the service of 
transportation. Net operating income was defined to include 
debits and credits arising from equipment and joint facility 
rents. ‘The fair return was fixed at 514 per cent on the aggre- 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 383 





gate value for two years, beginning March 1, 1920, with an 
additional % of 1 per cent for improvements, betterments 
and equipment. Any excess over 6 per cent on the value 
of its property received by any carrier had to be divided in 
two—one-half going into a reserve fund of the carrier and the 
other half to be paid to the Commission to be kept in a re- 





BALDWIN OIL BURNING HEAVY FREIGHT 
Southern Pacific Ry., 1922 


serve revolving fund for purposes described in the Act. The 
ostensible purpose was to assist by loans weak companies. 
It came to be known as the “recapture” clause of the Act, 
because it was aimed to recover whatever surplus of net in- 
come resulted from the rates being unnecessarily high for the 
prosperous companies. 

The real crux of the problem imposed on the Commission 
was the determination of the aggregate value of the carriers’ 
transportation property. For this purpose it was authorized 
to utilize the results of the Valuation Act of 1913, so far as 
deemed available, and was directed to give due consideration 
to all elements of value recognized by law for rate-making 
purposes, including the property investment accounts of the 
carriers only to the extent that they were entitled to consider- 
ation in such an inquiry. 

Consolidation of Railways 

By an amendment to Section 5 of the Commerce Act the 
Commission was directed to prepare a plan for the consolida- 
tion of the railway properties into a limited number of sys- 
tems. Under this existing routes and channels of trade were 
to be maintained and competition was to be preserved as far 


* 


384 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





as possible. When the Commission had prepared its tenta- 
tive plan, it was to publish the same and hold public hearings 
upon it. 

Under this section a tentative plan has been submitted 
and hearings have been held. But to date little progress has 
been made toward actual consolidation, for the simple reason 
that only weak companies favor it as a means to their im- 
' proved financial condition and strong companies do not see 
any advantage in diluting earning capacity with unproductive 
mileage. Happily the Act permits of the voluntary consolida- 
tion of railway properties, with the approval of the Commis- 
sion. Along this line several consolidations have taken place 
and more are proposed. 

Now let us review the progress of events under the more 
important provisions of the Transportation Act, 1920, which 
went into effect February 28, 1920. 


The $700,000,000 Labor Award 


The first reaction of far-reaching consequences, to the 
Transportation Act, 1920, was the decision of the Railroad 
Labor Board which advanced 
the wages of all classes of 
railway employes by various 
percentages that aggregated 
between $600,000,000 and 
$700,000,000 a year. The first 
figure was the estimate that 
accompanied the decision, the 


latter is included in a total 
increase of the pay roll from 
$2,828,014,440 in 1919 to 
$3,681,801,193 in 1920, or 


$853,786,/53. Part of this in- 
crease was due to the enlarge- 
ment of the staff by approxi- 





RAGAN 


CONDUCTOR LEWIS wW. 
ON BLOCK SIGNAL TOWER NAMED 


AFTER HIM 
The Tower is at Delaware, 3 miles South 


of Wilmington. Mr. Ragan has been in 
Service 50 years 


mately 112,000 men. The real 
advance was in average year- 
ly pay from $1,482 in 1919 to 


PEN TE PECADE 1920 385 


$1,820, or 22.8 per cent. Compared with the average pay in 
1913, before the breaking out of the World War, the average 
of $1,820 marked an increase of over 138 per cent in wages in 
seven years. 


This enormous addition to the already heavy burden im- 
posed on American transportation was decreed by the Labor 
Board before it was fairly warm in its newly created seat of 








HELL GATE CUT-OFF, LONG ISLAND 


This cut-off enables the Pennsylvania road after passing under Manhattan to Long 
Island to regain the main land by the bridge at the right separately illustrated 
—Copyright Major Hamilton Maxwell. 


authority. The Board was confirmed by the Senate on April 
15, 1920,,and was immediately confronted by the controversy 
over requests for wage advances, aggregating some $800,000,- 
000, that had been pending since January, 1919, involving, 
as the Board admitted, as “serious, difficult and intricate 
problems as had ever been presented to tribunals in this 
country.” It listened to arguments by the day, read testi- 
mony by the ream and studied thousands of exhibits and 
statements and after giving consideration to all the condi- 


386 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





tions enumerated by the Act and also “other relevant cir- 
cumstances,” on July 20th it delivered its decision which 
estimated “that the increase in wages herein provided for 
will impose on the railroads an addition to the pay roll of 
March Ist, 1920, aggregating approximately six hundred mil- 
lion dollars per annum.” For reasons stated in the opinion 
satisfactory to itself and to the employes, the advance was 





















































FOUR TRACK 977% ft. HELL GATE ARCH CROSSING THE EAST RIVER, 
NEW YORK 


made fetroactive to, May 1, 1920; <It declined=to; statesnaw 
the Board divided on the various questions involved. The 
effect of the retroactive clause was shown in the returns 
for July and August, 1920, when the operating ratio ran up 
to 98.40 per cent and 124.23 per cent, respectively, exclusive 
of taxes and equipment and facility rents. 

One of the relevant circumstances apparently overlooked 
at the time of its momentous first decision was the paragraph 
in the Act which provided that “The Labor Board may upon 
its own motion within ten days after the decision in accord- 
ance with the provisions of section 3 of any dispute with 
respect to wages or salares of employes or subordinate off- 
cials or carriers, suspend the operation of such decision if 
the Labor Board is of opinion that the decision involves such 
an increase in wages or salaries as will be likely to necessi- 
tate a substantial readjustment of the rates of any carrier.” 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 387 


For lack of time, the Board postponed decision of questions 
involving rates and working conditions. 


Valuation and Rates Under the Act 


Immediately upon the passage of the Transportation Act, 
1920, the Commission entered upon its duties relative to the 
adjustment of rates to yield a just and reasonable return on 














ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE, TRAIN AND BLOCK SIGNALS ON NEW YORK 
CENTRAL AT RIVERDALE 1921 


. the valuation to be fixed by it. It first assigned March 22 
for hearing the question whether the rate adjustment should 
be for the carriers as a whole or by rate groups or territories. 
It was decided to make the adjustment by groups, as follows: 
Eastern, Southern, Western and Mountain-Pacific. For gen- 
eral purposes the last named was to be included in the West- 
ern group. It first found that the book cost of road and equipment 
ef all classes-ofcarriers reporting to.it-on December 31,1919, 
was as follows: 


Master PrOUup iawe.k-< $ 9,038,194,615 
Sournecns rou ps ce. 2,183,923,124 
Western group ....... 8,818,454,872 


rota iMalinorcunsie <020040572 611 


Applying itself to the task of determining the aggregate 
value of all railway property, as defined by the Act, “held 
and used in the service of transportation;” and utilizing the 


388 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


results of its investigations under the valuation sections of 
the Commerce Act, as far as available, and giving due con- 
sideration to all elements of value recognized by law for 
rate-making purposes, the Commission made the following 
approximation for the three groups: 


Eastern group, as defined by the carriers..$ 8,800,000,000 
Southern group, as defined by the carriers. 2,000,000,000 
Western group, as defined by the carriers, 
including both Western and Mountain- 
Pacrht-roupsuec soe i eee eee 8,100,000,000 


Totaballseroapes.--. 3 ee ee eee $18,900,000,000 





BALDWIN. PACIFIC TYPE EXPRESS PASSENGER—1922 


Thereupon the Commission named the following increases 
_ for the respective groups: Eastern group, 40 per cent; South- 
ern group, 25 per cent; Western group, 35 per cent, and, 
Mountain-Pacific group, 25 per cent. These percentages were 
arrived at after a searching analysis of the traffic and needs 
of the carriers in the respective territories. 

In general terms, the carriers were authorized to increase 
passenger fares 20 per cent; excess baggage rates, 20 per cent; 
milk and cream on passenger trains, 20 per cent, and a sur- 
charge of 50 per cent on Pullman fares was granted. The 
last was in reality an increased passenger fare for extra and 
superior facilities, the proceeds going to the railways, the 
Pullman Company merely acting as a collector of the charge. 
The rates were made effective upon not less than five days’ 
notice to the Commission, or at least three months after the 
increased wages became effective. 

These increases as authorized were intended to yield the 
full 6 per cent (54%+%4), as contemplated by the Act “to make 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 389 


—$—. 





provision in whole or in part for improvements, betterments 
or equipments, which, according to the accounting system 
prescribed by the Commission, are chargeable to capital ac- 
count,’ as the record left “no doubt as to the needs of the 
country for additional transportation facilities.” 

The decision of the Commission bears date July 29 and 
takes note of the fact that “On July 20, 1920, (only nine days 
before) after the close of the hearings and oral argument, 
the Labor Board announced a decision “awarding approxi- 
mately $618,000,000 as increased wages.” 





SCHENECTADY PLANT OF AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE CO. 


~ 


This, as the sequel demonstrated, sufficed not only to 
vitiate all the Commission’s studied anticipations of a 6 per 
cent net return on the $18,900,000,000 valuation, but actually 
left the railways in 1920 earning the largest operating rev- 
enues on record with an operating deficit. The Commission, 
with full information, had done its part, whereas the Labor 
Board, ill-balanced in organization and overwhelmed with 
the complexity of conditions affecting the cost of living of 
approximately two million men, did not stop to inquire 
whether the $618,000,000 would “necessitate a substantial 
readjustment of the rates of any carrier.” — 

And so the mischief was done. The effect of the Labor 
Board’s prodigality was seen in the failure of the railway 
revenues to meet the expectation of the Transportation Act, 
1920, in 1920 by $1,021,772,792; in 1921 by $423,687,940; in 
1922 by $262,619,407 and 1923, when the Commission had 


390 HISTORY OF AMERICAN. RAILWAYS 





raised the rate of return on valuation to 534 per cent, by 
$109,092,632. And so in four years the net operating income 
of the railways fell more than a billion and three-quarters 
below the just and reasonable expectations of its authors and 
the administration of the Commission. If to the valuation of 
July, 1920, be added the betterments since made on capital 
account under the direction of the Act for supplemental valu- 
ation “from time to time and as often as necessary,” the failure 
to yield a reasonable return would be much greater for the 





BROOKS PLANT, AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY 


new investment, since. 1920 to .December, 31) 192 Gssiasepeen 
approximately two and a half billion dollars, without includ- 
ing the $1,144,000,000 securities the railways have had to 
issue to take care of improvements and betterments under 
Federal control. 


New York City in 1831 and 1924 


In taking account of the different conditions facing the 
transportation industry between the first railway decade on 
this continent and now, perhaps the transformation that has 
taken place in the surroundings of Trinity Church, New York, 
in the interim, as shown in the two following pictures, may 
help the reader to visualize them. New York City, where rail and 
water ways meet more profitably to the immediate community 
than elsewhere in the Union, had' to be pictured in a slow 
process by pen or pencil in 1831, whereas its tallest skyscraper 
is caught by an instantaneous camera from the air in 1924. 

Such was New York only three years before Chauncey 
M. Depew opened his eyes on the gentle scene at Peekskill 
depicted in an earlier chapter. Today in order to identify 


PENT DECADES 1920 391 








BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY, IN 1831 
Note Trinity Church at left 


the steeple of Old Trinity that rises above this semi-sylvan 
scene of ninety odd years ago, he would have to ascend in an 
airplane and look up through the Wall Street Canon to catch 
a glimpse of its needlelike spire at the top center of the accom- 
panying picture. 


Fe 





WALL STREET 


The Ganglion of New York in 1924—From the air 
—Wide World Photos. 


esa ae HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The Recession of 1921 


In 1921 the railways of America, in common with all other: 
national industries, suffered from the reaction following the 
abnormal activities and excessive production of 1920. Where 
the entire community had reveled in high costs of everything 
entering into the daily life of the people, the railways found 
themselves on the brink of bankruptcy from their inability 
to adjust their expenses to their revenues. Between July, 
1920, and September, 1921, the “farm price” of grain dropped 
more than 50 per cent and the Commission was appealed to 
for a reduction in the rates which had been advanced by 
Director General McAdoo in 1918 and by the Commission, 
effective August 26, 1920. The Commission found that these 
advances had raised the freight rate on various kinds of 
grain from 50 to 80 per cent. It also found that during the twelve 
months after the advance of 1920 the carriers had not earned 
“an aggregate net railway operating income over or about 
one-half of 5% per cent of the value of their property as tenta- 
tively fixed by us.’ 


This cut the return to the owners of the roads in one-half 
of the “just and reasonable” return on their property as fixed 
by the Commission, whereas the slump in the price of wheat 
only cut the war peak price in two. In September, 1921, 
the farmers were still getting 29 per cent more for their grain 
than they did in 1913 and almost exactly the same as they 
received in 1915; whereas the net railway operating income 
in 1921 was $200,000,000, or 24 per cent, below the figure for 
1913. Acting in what it regarded as the governing good to 
the whole people, the Commission cut the advance in wheat 
and hay granted in July, 1920, in half and reduced the rates 
on coarse grains to the extent that they exceeded 10 per cent 
less than those prescribed on wheat. 

In the spring of 1921 the carriers applied to the Railroad 
Labor Board to settle disputes over working conditions and 
to reduce wages in line with the decreased cost of living 
since its order advancing wages some $600,000,000 in July, 
1920. On June Ist the Board rendered its decision, effective 


PNP OA IE W920 393 


July 1, 1921, reducing wages by an average of about 12 per 
cent of the 1920 scale for the classes to which it applied. The 
decreases were by specific amounts per hour for different 
classes. In actual effect this decision reduced the pay roll 
by about $275,000,000 to $300,000,000, or less than one-half 
the advance of July 1, 1920. Actually it amounted to only 
one-third of that advance plus the changes in working con- 
ditions. The great economy in operation in 1921 was to 
come in the reduction in the number of employes from an 
average of 2,022,832 in 1920 to 1,667,580—a decrease of 355,252 
persons, a majority of whom were unnecessary, as the pay 
roll for 1923 was to demonstrate, when an average of 1,857,713 
employes moved the greatest traffic ever carried by American 
railways. 

~The full effect of these decisions of the Commission and 
the Labor Board was not apparent until 1922, when the dis- 
sent of the shop crafts to any reduction in wages was to pre- 
cipitate the disastrous strike of that year. A strike of the 
train service organizations was called for October 30, 1921, 
but three days before that date was called off. The operating 
results for the year 1921 in comparison with those for Class 1 
roads in 1920 were as follows: 


1921 1920 
(thousands) (thousands) 
TRC VCTIUCGEE fs tel aie ece he Ris pouiteeia © © $5,568,505 $6,234,265 
POR DENIEES Fy in cle cigciaietets sie'stadeprats 4,602,116 5,886,573 
ACCS ee, Bre eS a elas as 279,725 274,809 
Equipment and facility rents.. 68,969 53,835 
Uncollectible revenues ....... 1,883 1,320 
Net operating revenues....... 615,812 17,427 
Employes, average number.... 1,667 2,022 
Gomipensation essere) ee $2,800,897 $3,681,801 
UNVELAL Ce CTE Y.CAL sides gue cthncce 1,680 1,820 
PCAN TeCAllOs cans 2 oes beh Pesala oh 94.29% 
amar Olle ratio sae. so ot nake ns 50.30% 59.06% 


The last two lines of this statement indicate how the rail- 
ways were struggling back toward normal after the wasteful 
experience of Federal control. The ratios for 1921 were still, 
far above the level of economic safety, which, for expenses 
sans taxes, experience had placed below 70 per cent, while 
before the war the ratio of compensation of employes to rev- 
enues ranged from 38.40 per cent to 44.05 per cent. 


394 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


During 1921 there was a continuous surplus of freight 
cars, running as high as 495,781 in April, from which it re- 
ceded to 121,944 in October, only to jump back to 493,357 in 
January, 1922, when the tide turned. 


The Chicago Union Station 


Plans for the erection of the great union station on the 
west side of the south branch of the Chicago river were 





ARCHITECT’S DRAWING FOR CHICAGO UNION STATION 


This shows the relation of the station to the river, surrounding territory and the 
tracks entering from the North and South. It can be compared 
with the completed structure. 


well under way before the World War brought all such enter- 
prises to a stop. Money and labor were not available for 
such triumphs of peace when the Government was floating 
bonds by the billion and calling for men for the front and 
for war industries by the million. But the property along 
the river for five blocks from Washington Street to Van 
Buren and two blocks west on the river between Adams 
Street and Jackson Boulevard was in hand, ready for the 
monster yard and station. The accompanying layout shows 
what was proposed. It was designed to accommodate the 
trains of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Pan 
Handle division of the Pennsylvania coming in from the north 


EENTH DECADE, 1920 395 


and west; and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago 
& Alton, and the main lines of the Pennsylvania coming in 
from the south, east and west at the south end. There were 
to be eighteen tracks occupying the entire space between 
the river and. ‘Canal Street, “which had to be excavated’ to 
give head room for the concourse which covered them. 
The tracks entering from the north are protected by steel 
umbrella train sheds extending from Adams street two blocks 














y 
Adams os i 
* Baggage Drwe Down ~ H i | : 
a \ 
= = a my lo! 
ats ron “ a ? 4 
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= - \ ' 
ae > < “ ' aia Concourse 
Ves/-tule 
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e - : uf : 
ey Drug Store rf] ‘ 
® bd ° Ww 
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= My 
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Voit 
om . 


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s 


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Information a, SG 4) . 


a 


‘otormaticn 


Clinton St 













. 

Nickeb 

° (1m - 
itt 

e iu = 


Mezzanine Floor 





"Scurn Seconctury Concourse 


got yin ALIALE the ateeetot 


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Se ce 
Fay re om Fe @ oe 
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GROUND PLAN CHICAGO UNION STATION 


to Madison, while those coming in from the south are simi- 
larly .covered by sheds extending from Jackson Boulevard 
two blocks to Congress. The extreme ends of these sheds are 
more than a quarter of a mile apart. The main concourse 
separates their stub ends. 

Outside of these train sheds, and between them and the 
river, lie three tracks affording communication between the 
two sections of the terminal. Provision is also made for 
separate entrances for suburban passenger trains from the 
Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street sides of the station. 

As this history goes to press plans are in preparation for 
adding fifteen stories to the main building shown in the 


396 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





preceding pages, making twenty-three in all. This in itself 
testifies to the unending demands made upon the railways 
for increased accommodations to handle the Nation’s business. 


Culmination of the Labor Struggle 


The legacy from Federal control of inadequate revenues to 
meet the increased cost of operation hung like a pall over the 





SKELETON CONCOURSE CHICAGO UNION STATION FROM THE RIVER. 
MAIN BUILDING IN BACKGROUND. Oct. 1924. 


railway situation at the opening of 1922. The problem had 
resolved itself into a demand from farm and factory for a 
lowering of freight rates and a stubborn insistence on the 
part of certain blocs of railway labor that there should be no 
lowering of the wage scale, by which alone a reduction in 
freight rates was economically possible. Not having the 
power of taxation behind them with which to make good 
half-a-billion-a-year deficits, as Directors General McAdoo 
and Hines had, the carriers could only rely on a readjustment 
of wages to meet the reduction in rates which the Commis- 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 397 





sion had reluctantly ordered. This reduction was decreed by 
the Commission on May 16, 1922, effective July 1 following. 
Taking the increased ratio in 1920 as a basis, it was ordered 
that the advance of 40 per cent then made in Eastern territory 
be reduced. to 26 per cent, the 35 per cent for the Western 
group was reduced to 21.5 per cent and the 25 per cent ad- 
vance in the Southern and Mountain-Pacific groups was re- 








CONCOURSE, CHICAGO UNION STATION 
As seen from roof of Main Building, Oct. 22, 1924 


duced to 12.5 per cent. It was estimated that this decision 
would reduce the operating revenues by some $400,000,000, 
but the recovery in traffic made up for the reduction in rates. 
The Commission based its decision on an anticipation that 
with normal traffic the revised rates would yield over 
$900,000,000 net operating income, or some $100,000,000 more 
than it actually did. 

On June 6 the Labor Board ordered a reduction of shop- 
men’s wages amounting to from 5 to 10 cents an hour and 


398 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


authorized other reductions for other railway employes except 
those of the four brotherhoods. The shopmen immediately 
announced that unless the Board rescinded its action a strike 
would be ordered on July 1. On the Board’s refusal to yield, 
the strike was duly declared. Between 200,000 and 250,000 
shopmen dropped their tools. The subsequent official figures 
showed that the strike was far from being unanimous. The 





CHICAGO UNION STATION AND CONCOURSE 
Nearing completion October, 1924 


shopmen on the pay roll at the middle of June numbered 
346,366; on the middle of July they numbered 117,305, and 
on the middle of August 188,235. By the middle of Septem- 
ber the shopmen at work numbered 270,374 and by the middle 
of October 366,530, showing that so far as the railways were 
concerned the strike was over, although Federation leaders 
persisted that it was still on with those roads that had de- 
clined to restore seniority rights to returning strikers. 

Upon this question of restoring seniority rights to re- 
turning strikers, there was a radical cleavage in the policy 
of the leading railway companies. One party that had been 
most active in recruiting its forces through assurances that 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 399 


workers taking the place of strikers would be given perma- 
nent jobs, if proved capable, and who had warned the shop- 
men that they forfeited their seniority rights if they did not 
return within a specified time, felt in honor bound to abide 
by their promises. The other party accepted what was known 
as the Baltimore Agreement, which, among other things, pro- 
vided that all men were to return to work in positions of the 
class they originally held on June 30, 1922, and at the same 
point, “at present rates of pay.” The principal roads signing 
this agreement and also those that declined to restore seniority 
to strikers were as follows: 


. Baltimore Agreement— 
Baltimore & Ohio 
Chicago, Milw. & St. Paul 
New York Central 
Southern Railway 
Chesapeake & Ohio 
Seaboard Air Line 
Chicago & Northwestern 
Michigan Central 
Western Pacific 
Mobile & Ohio 


Cincinnati, N. Orleans & Tex. Pac. 


Erie 
Chicago Great Western 


Seniority Not Restored— 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
Illinois Central 
Great Northern 
Kansas City Southern 
Atlantic Coast Line 
Louisville & Nashville 
Lehigh Valley 
Southern Pacific 
Union Pacific 
Pennsylvania 
Missouri, Kansas & Texas 
New York, New Haven & Hartford 
Boston & Maine 
Chicago & Eastern Illinois 
Central R..R. of New Jersey 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
Delaware & Hudson 
Chicago & Alton 
Denver & Rio Grande 
Minneapolis, St. Paul & S.S. Marie 
Missouri Pacific 
Northern Pacific 
St. Louis-San Francisco 
Texas & Pacific 


In the final roundup it was found that approximately 26 


per cent of the shopmen went back under the Baltimore 
Agreement and 67 per cent settled by agreements with the 
roads that held fast to the forfeiture of seniority rights by 
employes going on a strike after due notice. 

But the strike had other far reaching consequences. In 
its early stages it was accompanied with acts of lawlessness, 
violence and sabotage, and these grew to be so numerous 


400 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


and desperate that the Attorney General obtained an injunc- 
tion in the U. S. District Court in Chicago forbidding strikers 
and union officials from interfering in any manner with the 
operation of the railroads. This injunction was made perma- 
nent and today stands as a bulwark protecting railway opera- 
tion throughout the United States from destructive attacks 
in labor struggles. 


St. Paul’s New Union Station 


If the reader will take a map of the vicinity of St. Paul 
and Minneapolis he will quickly perceive that neither was 


I | | 24 = pete 


FOURTH 





BROADWAY 








ROSABEL ST 














Z\ Seconn Floor FLAN { 

















: fo) 
= 





























































MISStssipp, 


Us “ARBOR un 


DATA Rives Vy ; 
. w 7 
: 4] oi 

$3 oe 

“un 







NUMBER OF PASSENGER TRACKS... 22 
‘ + FRI 







EIGHT . 
SMORTEST STATION YARD TRA 
LONOEST ° ~ 






GENERAL PLAN — 
- ST PAUL UNION DEPO? 
IMPROVEMENTS 





a 
= RBEG388, 


1285 Tof R Tracks Mand iB 
Tr 


* 8 WAITING ROOM 
PAGGAGE MAIL AND EXPRESS ROOMS UND! 
. . : ‘ ELEVATORS. orete 
NUMBER OF PASSENGER PLATFORMS. siacemalneh 
AGGREGATE LENGTH OF PASSENGER PLATFORMS 10800" 


& 3 






TRACK LAY-OUT ST. PAUL UNION STATION 

the ideal terminal for the various railways which center there. 
Ihe topographical spot for a railway serving two cities with 
an aggregate population of over 600,000 would have been the 
bend of the Mississippi River where it is joined by the Minne- 
sota River. The outpost Fort Snelling would have been an 
ideal location. But no such look into the future determined 
the site for this double-doored gateway of the Northwest. 
Circumstances decreed that they should be located on different 
sides of the “mighty waters” that they might pursue their 
distinct ways to their present metropolitan and business im- 
portance. 


PENTH DECADE, 1920 401 





The site of St. Paul was probably chosen because it was 
convenient to the head of deep water navigation on the 
Mississippi and was on the eastern shore of the stream that 
for a decade separated civilization from the boundless West. 
The Falls of St. Anthony, only ten miles from St. Paul as 
the crow flies, and nearer twenty by the river, had within its 
tumultuous waters the secret and potentiality that fixed the 











FRONT VIEW, UNION STATION ST. PAUL, 1923 
Photos—Northwestern Photographic Studios. 


destiny of Minneapolis as the milling center not only of Min- 
nesota and the United States but of the world. So diverse 
stars presided at the birth of these twin cities. 

St. Paul was settled in 1838 and chartered in 1854, by 
which time Minneapolis was a thriving village of some 500 
pioneers. In 1860, when the first census enumerator appeared 
on the scene, St. Paul had a population of 10,401 to Minneapo- 
lis’ 2,564. For a few years St. Paul had the advantage given 
it by that first locomotive that landed on its banks from a 
steamboat from Dubuque, and forged ahead. But before the 


402 HISTORY OF AMERICAN “KAILIWV ATs: 





census taker of 1880 came around the railways had brought 
prosperity and increased population to the younger city. 

In 1862, according to James J. Hill, “the whole railroad 
system of Minnesota, the gateway to the newer portion of 
the Northwest, was comprised in ten miles of track connect- 
ing St. Paul and St. Anthony”—mind you, a bridge across the 
river had still to be built. 





UNION STATION, ST, PAUL, MINN. Se 
Progress of work from Robert Street Bridge. 
Photos—Northwestern Photographic Studios. 


In 1920 the population of St. Paul was 234,698, while that 
of Minneapolis was 380,582, both cities owing their wonderful 
development to the iron horse that had come out of the East 
only sixty years ago to make distant fields and forests tribu- 
tary to their flouring and lumber mills. . 

Minneapolis, being dominated by only two or three lines, 
had no difficulty in providing itself with an ample passenger 
terminal; whereas St. Paul, being the center of half a dozen 
diverse railway interests and having a very difficult problem, 
terminal and through service, to solve, delayed its plans for 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 403 





a union station until the demand became imperative. Once 
decided upon, the work of replacing the old station with a 
new one without abandoning the old was pushed with great 
energy, with the result that St. Paul has now one of the most 
modern passenger terminals in the country. The illustrations 
of the layout and progress of the work given herewith in- 
cate the difficulty of the task that has been accomplished. 








MAIN CONCOURSE, ST. PAUL UNION STATION 


The Struggle Back to Normal 


With the labor situation somewhat clarified by the collapse 
of the shopmen’s misguided strike of July 1, and the adjust- 
ments with the Government over the return of the roads to 
private operation nearer settlement, the railways in the 
autumn of 1922 set themselves the task of adapting inadequate 
facilities to the demands of increasing traffic. For ten years, 
1912 to 1922, construction of new line had been practically 
at a standstill, being barely sufficient to offset the mileage 
abandoned, which, in the meantime, had amounted to over 





404 HISTORY OF AMERICAN. RAILWAYS 


—— 


6,000 miles—mostly of small lines and little or no traffic. 


The shifting nature of railway classification by revenues at 
$1,000,000, $100,000 and below, as well as the paralysis of pro- 
gressive construction during the decade 1912 to 1922, is set forth 
in the following statement: | 

Miles of Line Operated 


Year Class I Class ii «-ClassiLil.fAn Glasses 
1912 218,247 20,288 9,446 247,981 
1913 222,289 20,183 9,052 251.524 
1914 225,007 20,398 9,149 254,554 
1915 227,025 19,570 8,955 250/590 
1916(a) 229,258 18,914 9,033 2575205 
1917 230,611 18,440 8,867 257,618 
1918 231,112 17,592 7,770 256,474 
1919 232,411 16,966 7,195 256,572 
1920 233,285 17,868 6,839 257,992 
1921 234,702 17,432 6,228 258,362 
1922 234,986 16,500 5,458 256,944 
Ine percent’ 7.6% -D-18:6%' -D422% 3.6% 


(a) Year ending December 31. D. Decrease. 


The figures for Class 2. and Class 3 in 1922 are subject to 
revision when the official annual reports are compiled. Rec- 





WHERE NATURE DWARFS THE WORKS OF,MAN 
Grand Canon Arizona, from North Rim 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 405 


— 


ognizing the defect of instability in classifying roads by the 
fickle unit of revenues of successive years, the Commission on 
November 20, 1920, adopted the revenues of the calendar 
year 1919 as the basis for classification. 


Not since the second decade of American railway history 
has there been such an insignificant addition to the Nation’s 
main line of transportation as during the period covered in 
the above statement. Of the 16,739 increase credited to 
Class 1 roads, at least one-half was taken over from the other 
classes, principally by reason of the advance in rates in 1918 
and 1920. During this period over 7,000 miles of line were 
abandoned, against something like 10,000 miles of new con- 
struction. 

It was only through the construction of some 30,000 miles 
of auxiliary track—that is, second, third and other track and 
yard track and sidings—that the railways were able to cope 
with the heavy demands made upon them during the war and 
since in the normal development of national production and 
commerce. What that amounts to since 1912 is shown in 
the following figures for Class 1 roads: 


Tons of freight Passengers 
Year carried one mile carried one mile 
1922 339,285,347,571 35,469,841 ,029 
1912 259,981 628,198 32,316,262,549 
Increase per cent 31.9% 9.7% 


Two causes have operated to keep the passenger traffic 
from increasing relatively to population, which increased ap- 
proximately 15 per cent during the decade—the diversion of 
travel to motoring, both in touring and suburban rides, and 
the advance in average passenger rates from two to three 
cents. With an increase of less than 10 per cent in passenger 
mileage there was an increase of nearly 68 per cent in passen- 
ger revenues. In freight receipts the combination of in- 
creased stonnace, 31:9. per. cent, and increased rates raised 
the receipts from $1,897,692,838 in 1912 to $3,992,442,459 in 
1922, or 110 per cent. 

The growth of railway service is measured by the traffic 
movement and not by revenues, which in this case were 


406 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


swelled by rates and fares advanced to meet an increase of 
over 120 per cent in the compensation of employes. 

But it was left for the year 1923 to demonstrate the return 
of the railways to more than pre-war efficiency. Operating 
on what sailors call “an even keel” throughout the year, with 
no untoward circumstances in the way of strikes or regulatory 
reactions; with only minor adjustments of rates and wages 
to upset the reasonable anticipation of transportation de- 
mands, the railways of the United States in 1923 succeeded 
in handling the greatest volume of freight in their history. 
Except for the abnormal movement attendant on the assem- 
bling and disbanding of an army of over 4,000,000 men during 
1917-1920, the same would have been true of passenger traf- 
fic. Only figures can tell the full story of the magnitude of 
what energetic and concerted railway management accom- 
plished in 1923. Using the year 1916, their most successful 
year before the war, for comparison, the essential figures for 
Class 1 roads in 1923 were as follows: 


Item 191624 1923 
Operated Mileage cain wcosee on ee te ae 229 525 234,759 
Hitless alletraclen ys. de secus cue tees neat eee 364,137 382,101 
ILQCOMIOLIVESE 6c. . cle ee ee ee eee 61,013 64,879 
Passeneer icarst icc: aero 52,179 54,834 
Fyeronte CaS ian aon ore ee eed 2,280,955 2,314,389 
Passentersecarried ®. 7 7e ae oe 1,005, 954, 777 985,908,000 
Passengers carried 1 mile..... 34, 585 952.026 38,005,922 ,000 
Hreight tons xcarried 5... ys 2,179,696,043 2,312,200,000 
Freight tons carried 1 milc. 362, 444, 397, 129 413,562,132,000 
Passenversréventies: 729 aes. eon. $706, 608, wu $1,147,365,989 
Receipts, pér passenger mile......... 2.042 c 3.029:Ct 
Freight revenues ..... aetain dere: $2,560,988, 1 $4,613,954,874 
Receipts “per? ton: anileroe se ae 707 ct. Pell 6-68 


Total operating revenues...$3,596,865,766 $6,356,890,737 
Total operating expenses... 2,357,398,412 4,943,928,145 


Operatiip tratiog iinet, sa ee ee ee 65.54% 77.17% 
PCS ee ea ce Oe an sk eA Ee Oe Ge ls7s1 3372 $336,381,765 
Rent of equipment and facilities 41, 471 079 96,847,506 

Net operating income...... 1,040, 882. 000 977,657,368 
Nuamber-of employesss 4 .o5 «so oeke 1 647, 097 1,879,770 
Cambensationws o.oo $1,468, 576, 394 $3,043,161,163 
Average per=veati i 64. soasd ite an $891 $1,619 
PerdAcent! ofereventiesiin dncueaneke inion 40.8% 47. 9% 


With this exhibit of the wonderful recovery of the rail- 
ways under private operation from the tribulations and dis- 
organization under Federal control, our record of their amaz- 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 407 


ing accomplishment is properly rounded out by the comple- 
tion of two great union stations in Chicago and St. Paul as 
illustrated in preceding pages. The sites of these two cities 
were Indian trading posts, unmarked on the maps accessible 
to Carroll of Carrollton when he turned the first sod of the 
Baltimore & Ohio, ninety- 
seven years ago. Today their 
place in the industrial life of 
the republic and as great rail- 
way centers justifies the erec- 
tion of two of the largest pas- 
senger stations in the world, 
embodying in their construc- 
tion every convenience and 
requirement of modern rail- 
way travel. 


The Castleton Cut-off 


One of the first principles 
ote tailway location = 4s . to 
straighten out as nearly as 
possible all angles, for the THE LATE A, H. SMITH 
perfect railway is a straight level line between two places. 
Being practically impossible, it remains the objective of all 
the realignment and reduction of curves that figure constantly 
in railway betterments and improvements. The latest in- 
stance of this rectification of a long standing obstruction to 
economic operation of increasing traffic was the opening of the 
so-called “A. H. Smith Memorial Bridge” over the Hudson 
at Castleton. The necessity for this was a legacy of 1830, 
when the Albany to Schenectady was built. 

If the reader will take a straight edge rule and run a line 
on the map of New York State from Castleton to Hoffmans, a 
few miles west of Schenectady, he will perceive how modern 
engineering gets around the acute angle in the New York 
Central’s main line to Chicago at Albany. The bridge across 
the Hudson also obviated the necessity of running freight 
trains for Boston through Albany. 





408 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


The accompanying map shows the advantages of the new 
cut-off in point of distance, but it does not tell of how it 
avoids the steep. grades and low level bridges at the head 
of navigable water in the Hudson. It was steamboat traffic 
that made Albany the gateway for early western transporta- 
tion, and now the increase of traffic has made the expenditure 


eh 





CASTLETON CUT-OFF—SHOWING BRIDGE OVER HUDSON 


of $25,000,000 on this cut-off an economic investment for the 
railways. 

The picturesque as well as the engineering feature of this 
cut-off is the bridge, which is a double track through truss 
steel structure. It consists of two river spans of 600 and 400 
feet, respectively, resting upon three massive stone and 
concrete piers. : 

The map shows the location at Selkirk of one of the largest 
and most efficiently equipped terminal freight yards in the 
world, with a present capacity of 11,000 cars. It has two 


’ TENTH DECADE, 1920 409 








electrically operated switching humps for handling east and 


west bound business, respectively. 


| | Capitalization in 1848 and 1923 


Throughout this history of the American railways the 
question of their capitalization has been the “poor relation” 
that presided at their birth and haunted every proposal for 
their extension, expansion.and nourishment. There has never 





410 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


been a time, since Carroll of Carrollton turned the first spade 
of dirt for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad down to the check 
for $100,000 paid last year for a single locomotive, that every 
dollar spent for that spade or that locomotive has not been 
suspected of concealing “Water.” No decade reviewed in the 
preceding chapters has been without its indiscriminate cry 
of “Water! Water!”, the implication being that the stated 
capitalization of all the railways far exceeded the amount in- 
vested in them. 
Investment in Early New England Roads 

In 1848 a committee of the Massachusetts legislature made 
an investigation of the railroads of the commonwealth and 
reported the following facts: 


Lencsthtotercads, sinless eee ice 954.3 
Length of double track, miles...... 22052 
Capital oe ae taroumRor ee $50,004,100 
Gapital *paititie eee ere 37,009,560 
COSTS 5. see: Stee ee eee 46,777,009 


As the lst of roads covered by this statement included 
several unfinished lines, the committee presented another 
table of 28 completed roads with a total of 913 miles of main 
track and 89 miles of branches which had cost $43,865,256, or 
$43,781 per mile. Elsewhere in the report it appeared that 
the discrepancy between the capital paid in’and the capital 
was made up by an indebtedness of $12,420,201 and other 
items. 

The committee also calls attention to the fact that the 
average cost of 4,420 miles in England in 1848 was about 
$142,000 per mile and added: “There is no road in this 
country which cost the average of the English lines, excepting, 
perhaps, the Reading Railroad in Pennsylvania.” 

How near the surmise of the Massachusetts committee 
was to the truth is shown by the following figures from the 
Reading Railroad’s balance sheet of November, 1848: 


Railroad even cate eee -.$11,264,715.41 
DepOtsias vii eee le ee eae 205,324.87 
Locomotive engines and cars.. 2,278,326.36 
Realeestate wee. 0.8 ie eee ee 478,514.52 

Totem tee eae $14,226,881.16 


Perrinile, (95 milesv ee 152,977.00 








PENT DECADE 1920 411 





Unlike a majority of the roads at that time, the Reading 
was double tracked all the way. 

One-sixth of the railway mileage of the United States . 
was covered in the review of the Massachusetts committee 
in 1848. The population of the Republic has grown from 
22,000,000 in 1848 to, say, 112,000,000 in 1924, or well over 
400 per cent, but the railway mileage has increased over 4,000 
percent. In 1848 there was only one mile of railway to some 
3,600 inhabitants, where there is one mile of line to about 420 
inhabitants now. | 

That it has taken millions and billions of dollars to work 
this amazing transformation no serious, straight-minded stu- 
dent will question. Water does not run up hill at that rate. 
Therefore it is not surprising to find the seeming miracle 
represented in such official capitalization figures as these for 
250,000 miles of operated line: 


ee TERS OC pee eared Mere area a be eee eI cre he sb eislnye eco se $ 7,626,037 ,584 
Peet) Ct Mes ete eas es ee feet Oe SP eee eS 11,961,375,063 
PReeeTVeioeaCeh 1ICALCSH aurea ic eile dni ee eos Seabee Bi 6,943,968 


Total 190,000 miles owned and 60,000 miles rented 19,594,356,613 


For the purposes of this statement the rental of non- 
operating roads is capitalized as offsetting their capitaliza- 
tion, thus sidestepping the pitfall of intercorporate relations. 

The total investment reported for the same roads to De- 
cember 31, 1922, was $20,961,692,520; and so we have— 


Capital per mile of operated line...... $78,377 
Investment per mile of operated line.. 83,846 
If the reader is inclined to question the relative reasonable- 
ness of these figures compared with the findings of the Massa- 
chusetts committee in 1848, let him compare the railway of 
1848, as symbolized in the Pioneer locomotive landed in Chi- 
cago that year, with the last locomotive illustrated in this 
book, and he will get a clearer realization of the cost of the 
railway service at the disposal of Americans today at lower 
rates than prevailed then. 
In the presence of such impressive figures and facts, the 
official valuation of the railways made by the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission in 1920, of $18 900 000 000, seems easily 


412 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


within the mark. If it were possible to summon every dollar 
sunk irrevocably in right of way, rail, tie, station, bridge, 
viaduct, culvert, locomotive, car, shovel, tool, machine, signal, 
safety device, convenience and patent contraption of American 
railways from the opening of the Quincy tramway until now, 
it would present a column of figures whose sum would reach 
billions beyond the vast totals that can be accounted for. 
The vastness of its minutiae precludes its attempt. 




































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































J! INDIANA 





Sour, i 


Pee icay 





LAY-OUT OF THE NEW ILLINOIS CENTRAL TERMINAL 


Moreover, the brains, the vision, the adaptation of small 
means to great ends that has attended the building and man- 
agement of American railways is a priceless heritage worthy 
of a place in the annals of the Republic only one step below 
that accorded to its founders and preservers. 


TEE PALES T PASSENGE RIS PATION 


Many of our readers who have followed this brief history 
may have come into the passenger station of the Illinois Cen- 
tral when it was located at the foot of Randolph Street, Chi- 
cago, in the early 50’s. Many more have passed through the 
company’s “new” station opened April 17, 1893, at Park Row, 
for it was there during the World’s Fair. And now, just as 
it has become inadequate through a like expansion of traffic, it 
is to be succeeded by a modern structure and terminal that is 
intended to embody every convenience adopted in railway pas- 
senger service. | | 


TENTH DECADE, 1920 413 





Only the tentative plans are available at this writing. But 
their general features must conform to the necessary confines 
of the situation—a terminal for through traffic that shall not 
interfere with one of the most necessary and densest suburban 
services in the United States; electrification of all tracks pass- 
ing through to the vast freight yards that open like a fan 
from Madison Street to the Chicago River and a head house 
that shall accommodate the ever-expanding passenger traffic 





GENERAL PLAN HEAD HOUSE AND CONCOURSE 


of the Illinois Central, with its direct connections that range 
all the way from Minneapolis in the Northwest to Jackson- 
ville in the Southeast, and of the Michigan Central and its 
immediate connections through Detroit and Buffalo with the 
East. } | 

The new station will front on Twelfth Street, a short block 
south and somewhat east of the present building. It will be 
the third noteworthy structure of the three that form a tri- 
angle with the Field Museum and the Municipal Stadium 
at the southern end of Grant Park. 

The architects’ drawings must suffice to give an idea of 
what this new addition to America’s monumental passenger 


414 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





stations will be, and one or two like it are contemplated before 
Chicago is equipped for the second century of rail transporta- 
tion mi thesUnited: States. 


Is This to Be the Last Word in Steam Locomotives? 











STEAM TURBINE LOCOMOTIVE 
Exhibited by Krupp Works at the Railroad Fair, Berlin, 1924. 
—Photos, Gilliams Service, New York 


CHAPTER XII 


THE RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 


“The man’s the gowd for a’ that.’—Burns. 


le no other occupation does the eye to see, the hand to do 
and the sane mind in the sound body find its due reward 
with more certainty than in the railway 
service. Its doors of opportunity swing 
inward to the multitude who are annually 
entered on its rolls. It is a steep climb 
from the bottom rung, which is open to all, 
to the top of one of the hundreds of com- 
panies; but the footing is sure and the re- 
wards increase with every step. The goal 
of place, honor and competence is always 
there to him who brings to the service en- 
ere ye ucusthysandaie Sopiriy. tonstcceed «MARVIN TU GHITT 
And all along the way the railroad em- 

ploye has the satisfaction of knowing that he is engaged in a 
useful and necessary public service. 


That these are no idle words is proved by the following 
brief biographical notes of the men who today are at the head 
of the leading railway systems of the country. 





Beginning with Marvin Hughitt, whose eyes, undimmed at 
eighty-seven, have seen the railways of the United States 
expand from their first thousand to 250 thousand miles. He 
was born at Genoa, New York State, in 1837, before the rail- 
way had penetrated that far into the wilderness, but he sailed 
his boyhood boats on the Erie Canal. At the age of sixteen 
he entered service of the telegraph company at Syracuse 
as a messenger boy, less than ten years after Morse had pat- 
ented his invention. In 1854 he migrated to Chicago, entered 
the railway service as a telegraph operator and by 1862 had 
reached the position of trainmaster on the St. Louis, Alton & 


416 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Chicago Railroad; from 1862 
to 1864 he was superintendent 
of the Southern Division of 
the Illinois Central, then gen- 
eral superintendent of the 
same road until 18/0; assist- 
ant general manager of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. 
Paul; and general manager of 
the Pullman Palace Car Com- 
‘pany, 1871 to 1872. Since that 
date he has been connected 
with the Chicago & North 
Western successively as gen- 
eral ‘superintendent, general 
manager, vice-president, pres- 
ident, 1887-1910, and chair- 
man of the Board of Directors 
since then—over 70 years in 
railway and public service. 
After this brief outline of length of service, the career of 
the present head of the great system that harks back to the 
Camden & Amboy Railroad of 1830 engages attention. Samuel 
Rea, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was born at 
Hollidaysburg, Pa.,.in 1855. At sixteen he 
entered the railway service, in the engineer- 
ing department. The accompanying por- 
trait shows him engaged in the same work 
as illustrated in Lyman Abbott’s story of 
the building of the Erie. From 1874 to 1875 
Mr. Rea held a clerical position with the 
Hollidaysburg Iron & Nail Company. In 
1875 he re-entered the Pennsylvania’s serv- 
ice in the engineering corps, in which by 
1883 he had risen by successive steps to be SAMUEL REA 
principal assistant engineer (of. the: system + when! casaeeauas 


Pets d A survey of the Pitts- 
assistant to second vice president (1888); burgh & Lake Erie 





MARVIN HUGHITT—1924 
—Steffens, Chicago 





RAILWAY DOORTOR OPPORTUNITY 417 





out of the service from 1889 
to 1892; then returned to ser- 
vice as assistant to president; 
fourth vice president (1899) ; 
successively third, second and 
first vice-president; president 
since 1913; supervised con- 
struction of New York terminal 
extension and station. It was 
the good fortune of Mr. Rea to 
enter the service of the Penn- 
sylvania when it was under 
the management of A. J. Cas- 
satt, who rose from rodman in 
1861. to general manager in 
1870 and president in 1899 to 


1906. 
Patrick E. Crowley, presi- 


dent of the New York Cen- 
tral Lines, affords a typical 





PATRICK Es CROWLEY 





SAMUEL REA—1924 


illustration of the _ railway 
road from the common lot to 
high distinction. Born in 
1864, at the age of twelve Mr. 
Crowley was a messenger boy 
in his father’s station on the 
Erie at Cattaraugus, New 
York, earning five dollars a 
month. He entered the serv- 
ice of the Erie as a telegraph 
operator at fourteen and by 
1888 had risen to train dis- 
patcher on the Rome, Water- 
town & Ogdensburg, now a 
part of the New York Cen- 
tral. From then on his pro- 
motion has been rapid. By 
1904 he was assistant general 


418 HISTORY OF AMERICAN, RAILWAYS 





DANIEL WILLARD 


one more instance of how the 
highest office in railway serv- 
ice beckons the ambitious boy 
from the humblest station in 
lie “eborne in meV ermoni ait 
1861, he was a railway track 
laborer “at “eighteen on > the 
Central Vermont Railway. 
Brom pthenton, he ihas “been 
locomotive fireman, engineer, 
roundhouse foreman and 
trainmaster, until at 37 he had 
risen to superintendency of 
the Minneapolis, St. Paul & 
Sault Ste. Marie road. Thence 
he went to the Baltimore & 
Ohio as assistant. general 
manager in 1901; second vice- 





superintendent of the New 
York Central, and 1916 found 
him vice-president in charge 
of operation of the same road. 
In 1924 he succeeded to the 
presidency on the _ tragic 
death of A. H. Smith, whose 
career from messenger boy to 
president had been a close 
counterpart of the long hours 
of labor and “nights devoid of 
ease” by which Mr. Crowley 
fitted himself for one of the 
most responsible and arduous 
offices in the railway world. 

Daniel Willard, president 
of the Baltimore & Ohio, an- 
other of the early roads, is 





FRANK H. ALFRED 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 419 





president in charge of opera- 
tion of the Chicago, Burling- 
ton & Quincy, 1904-1910; and 
president of the Baltimore & 
Ohio since then. 

But the inspiring tale of 
how these men, irrespective 
of the circumstance of birth, 
worked themselves up_ to 
places of great responsibilty 
must. be curtailed sto the 
barest outline. Taking them in 
alphabetical order, the review 
of each in main is restricted 
to where they began, when 
they arrived and their present 
position, 

Frank H. Alfred, president 
Peron wrardnette Kin entered L. W. BALDWIN 
service in 1387. when 21 years Moffit Photo, Courtesy Railway Review. 
old, as rodman on construction Columbus, Lima & Milwaukee 
R. R; 1889-1894, assistant engineer Norfolk & Western R. R. 
construction work at Columbus, O.; assistant, then chief en- 
gineer, Pere Marquette 1900-05; out of service three years; 
with Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Ry. 1908-12; general 
manager for receivers Pere: Marquette 1912-17; president and 
general manager since 1917. 

Lewis W. Baldwin, president Missouri 
Pacific R. R., entered service of Illinois Cen- 
fide elven 1306 when 2leyears, old) .as 
chainman; successive positions 1896-1915 on 
same road up to general superintendency of 
southern lines; 1915-18 vice-president and 
general manager of Georgia Ry.; assistant 
regional director under U. S. administration 
1918-20; vice-president Illinois Central 1920- 
23; present position since 1923. 

W. G. BESLER AT 21 William G. Besler, president Central R. 








420 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





WILLIAM G. BESLER 
—Pach, New York 


eral manager and vice-presi- 
dent Central R. R. Co of New 
Jersey 1902-14, president 
sincesl 922. 

Ralph Budd, president 
Great Northern Ry., entered 
service of Chicago, Great 
Western as rodman in 1899, 
when 22- years old; in en- 
gineering department same 
road 1899-1902, advancing to 
assistant engineer, superin- 
tendent construction and divi- 
sion engineer Chicago, Rock 
Island & Pacific 1902-06; 
chief engineer Panama R. R. 
1906-09; chief engineer Great 
Northern Ry. 1913-14, and 
present office since 1919, 








R. of New Jersey, entered ser- 
Vice von the Gs, by CO) eee 
at Galesburg, Ill., as train- 
master’s clerk; transferred to 
general offices in Chicago, be- 
coming private secretary to 
general manager and chief 
clerk in general superintend- 
ent’s office; Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology 1884- 
88; re-entering the service on 
the same road as night train- 


master, subsequently  train- 
master and division superin- 
tendent, 1888-99;  superin- 


tendent Reading and Lebanon 
divisions and general super- 
intendent Philadelphia & 
Reading Co. 1899-1902; gen- 


RALPH BUDD 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 421 


H. E. Bryam, president 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. 
Paulo ingementercar service. oF 
Chicago, Burlington & Quin- 
Cy RatRivass call boyrins eels 
when “16 years-old ;? out:of 
service 1889-1894; re-entered 
with Great Northern in latter 
year; superintendent Cascade 
division that road 1899-1902; 
vice-president C., B. & Q. 
R. R. 1910-17; president C., 
Moot nino resince: LOT 7, 

Agnew T. Dice, president 
Philadelphia & Reading Ry., 
entered service with Penn- 
sylvania R. R. in 1881, when 
19 years old, as flagman with 





HOWARD ELLIOTT 
—Underwood & Underwood 





AGNEW T. DICE 


engineering corps; rodman 
and assistant engineer 188/- 
88; various positions same 


road up to supervisor 1888- 
92; superintendent of signals 
New York Central & Hud- 
son River Ry. 1892-93 ; super- 
intendent Shamokin division 
Philadelphia & Reading Ry. 
1897-1903; general superin- 
tendent, general manager, 
vice-president same consecu- 
tively 1903-16; present posi- 
tion since 1916. 

Howard Elliott, chairman 
Northern Pacific Ry. and 
New York, New Haven & 


422 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAY» 











SAMUEL M. FEL- 
TON AT 30 


When Vice-president 
of the Erie 
—Photo L. Almon 


Hartford R. R., graduate Lawrence Scien- 
tific School, Harvard, entered service of Chi- 
cago, Burlington.& Quincy R. R. in 1880, 
during vacation, as rodman, when 20 years 
old; held various clerical positions up to 
general freight agent Hannibal & St. Joseph 
R. R. 1891-96; second vice-president Chi- 
cago, Burlington & Quincy 1902-03; presi- 
dent Northern Pacific 1903-13; 1913 to 1917 
president and chairman New York, New 
Haven & Hartford; 1917 to 1920 president 
Northern Pacific and present position since 
"1920. 


Samuel M. Felton, president Chicago Great Western R. R., 
eraduated as civil engineer from Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology in 1873 at the age of 20; chief engineer Chester 
& Delaware River R. R. 1873-4; general superintendent Pitts- 
burgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Ry. 1874-81; general manager 
New York & New England R. R. 1882-84; vice-president 


New York, Lake .Erie & 
Western R. R. 1885-90; presi- 
dent Cincinnati, New Orleans 
& Texas Pacific Ry. 1890-99; 
for that and 
various other roads after the 
panic’ of 18935" president: ‘ot 
Chicago & Alton and affiliated 
roads 1899-1907; president 
Mexican Central 1907-09; 
president and receiver Pere 
Marquette 1912-1914; director 
general of Military Railways 
U. S. Army 1917-18; present 


also receiver 


position since 


lives of Mr. Felton and his 
father cover 79 years of rail- 


way service. 


1909. The 





SAMUEL M. FELTON—1924 








William H. Finley, presi- 
dent Chicago & North West- 
eri Ry, wentered Service (2s 
draftsman on the Chicago, 
Milwatkee so 75t.. paul) Ry: 
in 1887, when 25 years old; 
engineer of bridges Chicago & 


North Western 1892; chief 
engineer ssame road 7 1913; 
president “same. road since 
1918. 

James E. Gorman, presi- 


dent Chicago, Rock Island & 
Pacific Ry., entered railway 
service with the G:, B.& O. 
at 13 as:\car number taker; 
with the Chicago, Burlington 
& Quincy for four years, then 





JAMES E,. GORMAN 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 423 














WILLIAM H. FINLEY 


held various positions with 
the Rock Island, the Chicago 
Lumber Co., Chicago & North 
Western, Sante Fe, and Illi- 
nois Central, moving upward, 
until 1895, when he was chief 
clerk of the Sante Fe, becom- 
ing freight traffic manager of 
the same road in 1905; went 
back to Rock Island as first 
vice-president in 1909; chief 
executives under «receivéeroin 
1915 and president since 1917 
except for ‘period of Federal 
control, when he served as 
Federal manager. 

Carl R. Gray, president 
Union Pacihe. System, “en- 
tered service of St. Louis & 
San Francisco R. R. as tele- 


424 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





graph opera- 
tor in 1882, 
Ww) heer ala 
years old; by 
1897 he had 
TiseHeeto pe 
division su- 
perintend- 
ent; by 1900 
superintend- 
ent of trans- 
portation; by 
1904 general manager, and by 
1909 senior vice-president— 
all with the same road; presi- 
dent of Spokane, Portland & 
Seattle Ry 1911-12; president 
Great Northern Ry 1912-14; 





' CARL R. GRAY 
Ni ae B) 


-—j, Ee) Crouch, artist, 
Fayettesville, Ark. 


president Western Maryland - 


Ry. 1914-17; director Division 
of Operation U. S. Railroad 





FAIRFAX HARRISON 





CARL R. GRAY 
—Moffet, Chicago 


Administration 1918-19; and 
president Union Pacific since 
January 1, 1920. 


Fairfax Harrison, presi- 
dent Southern Railway Sys- 
tem, admitted to the bar in 
New York in 1892, when 23 
years old, in practice until 
1896, when he entered railway 
service as Solicitor of South- 
ern Ry.; assistant to presi- 
dent and vice-president of. 
same road until 1910; then 
president of the Chicago, In- 
dianapolis & Louisville 
(Monon) Ry. until 1913, since 
then President Southern Rail- 
way and affiliated roads. 


Hale Holden, president 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 425 





Ry., after graduating from 
Harvard Law School prac- 
ticed law in Kansas City until 
1907, when at the age of 38 he 
entered railway service as 
general attorney for road 
named; assistant to president 
1910-12; vice-president 1912-: 
14; president 1914-18;  re- 
gional director Central West- 
ern region 1918-20; present 
position since 1920. 


Mr. Holden = succeeded 
Darius Miller, who himself 


entered railway service at the 
age of eighteen as stenog- HALE HOLDEN 
rapher in the general freight office of the Michigan Central. 
William J. Jackson, president Chicago & Eastern Illinois 
Ry., entered service in 1877, when 18 years old, with Grand 
Trunk Ry. as machinist’s helper; 18/8-81 freight clerk 
same road; 1882-85 chief 
claim clerk Chicago & Grand 
Trunk Ry. at Chicago; 1891- 
93 assistant local freight 
again ©. ht care O ea Hast- 
ern Illinois; 
Same ¢ 1893 
various posi- 
tions same 
Boudnatip. to 
presidentand 
Heeervy.er; 
19 1 3+1918; 
federal man- 
ager 1918-20; 
receiver and 
presrdent 











: WILLIAM J. 
DARIUS MILLER since. JACKSON AT 20 


426 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 








John R. Kenly, president 
Atlantic Coast Line R. R., en- 
tered service as construction 
engineer Pittsburgh & Con- 
nelsville R. R. in 1871, when 
22 years old; superintendent 
Richmond & Petersburg R. R. 
1882-85; various positions on 
Atlantic Coast Line 1885 to 
1913, and since that his pres- 
ent position. 


Se 
Boi 
BESEOUNES 


B55 





JOHN R. KENLY 

Julius Kruttschnitt, chair- 
man Southern Pacific Com- 
pany, was born in New Or- 
leans in 1854, graduated as 
a civil engineer at Washing- 
ton & Lee University, assist- 
ant teacher in McDonough’s 
School, near Baltimore, 1873- 


JULIUS KRUTTSCHNITT : : 
Diedi Tune 45.1925: , 78; entered railway service at 


24; general manager Atlantic system Southern Pacific Co, at 
35; general manager of all Southern Pacific lines at 41; direc- 
tor of maintenance and operation Southern Pacific Co., 





RAILWAY DOOR QF -ORPORTUNITY 


Union -Paciic# RR. kh Oregon 
Short Line and Oregon- 
Washington R. R. & Naviga- 
tion Co. at 50, and chairman 
Southern Pacific Company 
LOVS. inti retirement in 1925. 

James M. Kurn, president 
St. Louis-San Francisco Ry., 
entered service in 1885, when 
15 years old, as telegraph op- 
erator on the Michigan Cen- 
alee  transierred » tO 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
in 1887 in same capacity, be- 








J. M. KURN 
—Straus’ Photograph 


coming train dispatcher in 1891 and chief dispatcher in 1900; 
trainmaster Pueblo in 1901; promoted to division superintenden: 
Rio Grande division 1905; superintendent New Mexico division 
1906-10; general superintendent western lines 1910-14; 1914-18 
president Detroit, Toledo & Ironton R. R.; first vice-president St. 
Louis San Francisco 1918 and general manager during Federal 
control; present position since March 1, 1920. 


Robert S. Lovett, 





ROBERT S. LOVETT 
—Underwood & Underwood 


chairman Executive 


Board Union 
Pacific System, entered: rail- 
road service at 24 in 1884 as 
local attorney of Houston 
Hasta & tVWVestavexase Kotka: 
attorney for) all 
Southern Pacific lines, in 
Texas 1892-1903; 
counsel for Union Pacific and 
Southern Pacific afhliated 
lines 1904-09; chairman Ex- 
ecutive Committee and presi- 
dent) “Union ~Pacifie’” and 
Southern "Pacific. (systems 
since 1909-13 (when relations 
of two systems were dis- 
solved), chairman Executive 


general 


general 


428 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


“ 
~ 





Committee Union Pacific since 1913, and director of capital 
expeditures under United States Railway Administration 


1918-1920. 


L. F. Loree, president Delaware & 
Hudson Co. and chairman Executive Com- 
mittee Kansas City Southern Ry., entered 
service Pennsylvania R. R. as assistant in 
engineer corps in 1877, when 19 years old; 
1883-84 assistant engineer Chicago divi- 
sion Pennsylvania lines west; president 
Baltimore & Ohio R. R. 1901-04; chairman 
Executive Committee Chicago Rock Island 
& Pacific Ry. and affiliated companies 
January to October, 1904; 
chairman. Kansas. City 
Seuthern~ since: “19065 and 
president and chairman Dela- 
ware & Hudson Co. since 
1907. 

Charles H. Markham, 
president Illinois Central R. 
R. and Yazoo & Mississippi 
Valley R. R., entered railway 
service as section laborer on 
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Fe in 1881; various positions 
on Southern Pacific succes- 





L, \F.-LOREE At 20 





L. F,. LOREE 


sively up to general manager 
1881-1904; out of railway 
service 1904-1911; president 
Illinois Central and affiliated 
tompanies 1911 to date. C. H. MARKHAM AT 20 





RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 429 


W. L. Mapother, president 
Louisville & Nashville R. R., 
entered service as office boy in 
secretary's office that road in 
1888, when 16 years old; rose 
through various positions to 
chief clerk Executive Depart- 
ment in 1904; assistant to pres- 
ident one year; first vice-presi- 
dent in 1905-18; Federal man- 
ager 1918-20; succeeded to 
presidency in 1921 on the death 
of Milton H. Smith, a heroic 
figure in the public and railway 
life of the South. The accom- 
panying portrait of Mr. Smith 
was furnished by his successor 


in lieu of an earlier one of him- 
self. 





CHARLES H. MARKHAM 


Regional Director of the 


1 Allegheny 
Region Under Federal Control 


1918-19. 





ae ; ; 
Mr. Smith’s record, itself reading like a romance, was 


typical of those hardships, struggles and long hours of work and 
study by which railway officials have breasted the currents of 





W. L. MAPOTHER 


life td win recognition and 


success. He was born a year 
earlier than his contemporary, 
Marvin Hughitt, and. entered 
railway service as an operator 
and clerk; he was with the mili- 
tary railways of the South dur- 
ing the war; after that he held 
positions with the B. & O. and 
Pennsylvania railroads until 
1882. From that time he was 
identified with the Louisville 
& Nashville, as IT with HIM, 
from 3d vice-president to Presi- 
dent (1891), dying in harness 
in 1920. 


430 HISLORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





MILTON H. SMITH 


1909 and present position since 
LoZ2 

Charles E. Schaff, presi- 
dent Missouri-Kansas-Texas 
Lines, entered service in 18/1, 
when 15 years old, as brake- 
man; held various positions 
on different roads up to gen- 
eral superintendent Peoria & 
Pekin Union Railway in 1893; 
assistant to president Cleve- 
land), Gincinnati;.Chicago 7& 
St. Louis Railway, and gen- 
eral manager same road 1894- 
1906; 1906-12 vice-president 
New York Central Lines at 





Edmund Pennington, chair- 
man of Board Minneapolis, St. 
Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Rail- 
way (“Soo” System), entered 
service as warehouseman and 
brakeman in 1869, when 21 
years old, with Chicago, Mil- 
waukee & St. Paul Railway; 
rose through various offices to 
assistant superintendent Iowa 
and Dakota divisions same road 
1869-84; superintendent Min- 
neapolis & Pacific R. R. 1884- 
88; with “Soo” since 1888 in 
consecutive offices from super- 
intendent up to president in 





C. E. SCHAFF 
—J. C. Straus, St. Louis 


—— ee 





RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 431 





Chicago; present position 
since Olz. 

William Sproule, president 
southern, Pacinc.. Company, 
entered railway service as 
freight clerk Southern Pa- 
cic. Wow |bo2s"ocneral ‘trafic 
manager same 1898-1906; out 
of service 1906-11 with the 
American Smelting and Re- 
fining Co. and president of 
Wells Fargo & Co.; ‘re-en- 
tered service in 1911 and since 
as president of the Southern 
Pacific. Duringithe war Mr: 








WILLIAM SPROULE 


Sproule was district director 
ofethe* Geéntral’-Western Re- 
gion. 

W. B. Storey, president 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Fe Railway, began railway 
service as axeman at age of 
20 years; after working one 
year. took *a college. course 
and re-entered railway serv- 
ice in 1881; engineer with 
United States Hydraulic Min- 
ing Commission at 36; re- 
entering railway service in 
1895 he was chief engineer 
and general superintendent of 
thejeoan oP rancisco. .&\oail 
Joaquin. Valley Ry. until 
1900; chief engineer of Santa 
ihm toner ee Fe at Topeka Kansas 1900- 








JAMES E. TAUSSIG 


Wabash Railway 1915; vice- 
president; 4716-16+) sbeqeras 
manager 1918-20, and present 
position since 1920. 

William H. Truesdale, presi- 
ident of the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna & Western R. R., en- 
tered service of Rockford, 
Rock Island & St. Louis R. R. 
(now. spartoh CB ee: 
System) as clerk in the audit- 
ing department in 1869, when 
18 years old; with a legal 
firm in charge of railway af- 
fairs 1874-76; assistant to re- 
Gai ver Wand trenctrer™ omic 
Logansport, Crawfordsville & 
Southwestern R. R. (now 
part .ofv they Vandalia dine). 
assistant to president of the 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


1909 ; vice-president in charge 
of construction and operation 
1910-20 and president since 
1920 ; “succeeding the latest 
Po Ripley: 

J. E. Taussig, president 
Wabash Railway, entered 
railway service as an appren- 
tice in the machine shops of 
the St. Louis Bridge & Tun- 
nel Company in 1882, when 17 
years old; rose through va- 
rious positions with different 
roads to be assistant to gen- 
eral manager of the Wheeling 
& Lake Erie Railway in 1900; 
assistant to president of the 





WILLIAM H. TRUESDALE 
—Underwood & Underwood 


RAM ArevOOK OTSOFrrORTUNITY 433 


Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapo- 
lis & Omaha Railway 1881- 
82; president and receiver of 
the Minneapolis & St. Louis 
Railway 1887-94; vice-presi- 
dent and general manager of 
the Chicago, Rock Island & 
Pacific Railway 1894-99 ; pres- 
ident of the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna & Western Railway 
since 1899. 

Frederick D. Underwood, 
President oi “thet Erie Rail- 
road, entered service of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. 
Paul Railway as clerk and 
brakeman in 18/0 when 18 
years old; general manager 
in charge of construction 





S. DAVIES WARFIELD 





FRED’K. D. UNDERWOOD 
—Underwood & Underwood 


of the Minneapolis & *Pacific 


Railway (now part of the 
“Soo” System) in 1886; gen- 
eral manager of the Min- 


Neapolisperote wreaths G yoanlt 
Ste. Marie Railway 1886-99; 
1899-1901 vice-president of 
the Baltimore & Ohio R. R., 
present position since 1901. 
S. Davies Warfield, presi- 
dent and chairman of Board, 
Seaboard Air Line Railway 
Company ;# member: of’ the 
Greater Seaboard Committee 
1898-1900, which consolidated 
and organized the Seaboard 


434 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Air Line Railway System; became chairman of Board in 1912 
upon reorganization of the property. Present position since 
1918. Mr. Warfield was the founder and is president of The 
Continental Trust Company 
of Baltimore; also organized 
and is president of the Na- 
tional Association of Owners 
of Railroad Securities. This 
association initiated and pre- 
sented to Congress what be- 
came the fundamental section 
of the Transportation Act of 
1920, viz, Section 15a. Other 
proposals of the association 
are embodied in other sections 
of that act. 

Otis= FP erand Nive Van 
Sweringen, Chairman and 
Vice-President, respectively, 
of the New York, Chicago & 
St. Louis Railroad. 

During the progress of this 
work the railway door of op- 
portunity swung inwards to 
these ambitious brothers who, 
as their portraits indicate, are OTIS P. VAN SWERINGEN 
still in the early forties. Both were educated in public schools. 
They first attracted attention as real estate dealers in Cleve- 
land, Ohio, planning and carrying through one of the largest 
suburban subdivisions in that city. In 1916 they organized 
the “Nickel Plate Securities Corporation” to hold and control 
the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (“Nickel Plate’), 
which was acquired from the New York Central Railroad in 
July of that year. With the backing of large Cleveland 
moneyed interests the brothers set out to organize a merger 
of a number of operating lines with an aggregate mileage of 
nearly 10,000. The lines mentioned included the following: 
the “Nickel - Plate; Erie, Pere -Marquetté,) Hocking way aien. 





RAILWAY DOOK OF OPPORTUNITY 435 


and Chesapeake & Ohio. If 
tne brothers succeed in per- 
fecting their ambitious under- 
taksnevuana secre’ thes ap- 
proval of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission, whose 
tentative plan of railway con- 
solidations it traverses in sev- 
eral instances, they will find 
themselves at the head of one 
of the great railway systems 
of the world. 


Edward F. Carry, presi- 
dent of the Pullman Company, 
who found his railway door of 
opportunity through the 
closely allied Pullman service 
on its manufacturing side, 
was born in Fort Wayne in 
1867; educated in the public 








EDWARD F. CARRY 
President Pullman Co, 











M. J. VAN SWERINGEN 
—Wide World Photos. 


schools, pushed his way up to 
general manager of the Amer- 
ican Foundry Company by 
1200) coing a thence stow the 
Haskell-Barker Car Com- 
Dattyeeas. president. in #19 bo: 
during the war was director of 
operations under the United 
States Shipping Board, and 
also Chairman of the Port 
and Harbor Facilities Com- 
mission, resigning in 1919; 
three years later was elected 
to his present position. 


436 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Chiefs of the Big Four 


To this list of railway officials who have “made good” from 
various starts by service to the public in administrative service 





WARREN 5S. STONE 


—IJnternational Newsreel Photo 
Died June 12, 1925. 


Lucius E. Sheppard, presi- 
dent of the Order Railway 
Conductors, entered service 
of the Pennsylvania R. R. in 
1881, when 18 years old; con- 
ductor 1883; member of the 
Government Arbitration 
Board between eastern rail- 
ways and conductors and 
trainmen 1913; member of 
President Wilson’s first In- 
dustrial Conference 1917; 
member Railway Adjustment 
Board 1918; present position 


since 1919. 


may be added the chiefs of 
the “Big Four” Brotherhoods, 
who have made good through 
service to their fellow em- 
ployes. 

Warren §S. Stone, grand 
chief Brotherhood of Loco- 
motive Engineers, entered ser- 
vice of Chicago, Rock Island 
& Pacific Railway in 1879, 
when 19 years old; promoted 
to engineer in 1894; appointed 
to) Succeeds Gir ada bier 
Arthur in 1903 and elected to 
present position in 1904 and 
president of the Co-operative 
National Bank of Cleveland 
(first of its kind in United 
States) in 1920, 





L. SHEPPARD 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 437 





D. L. Robertson, president 
of the Brotherhood of Loco- 
motive Firemen and Engine- 





W. G. LEE—ABOUT 1884 


men, entered service of the 
Pennsylvania’ R..R. in 1895, 
in his 19th year, in the capa- 
city of engine wiper, then 





W. G. LEE 
—Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C. 





D. L. ROBERTSON 


went to the Erie, serving suc- 
cessively as hostler, locomo- 
tive fireman and locomotive 
engineer irom’ 11898 to. 1913. 
From 1905 to 1913 he was 
grand chairman of his order 
forsthe) Brie) System 3 «-vice- 
president of the Brotherhood 
1913-1922; elected president 
aSuatey, ie VAey 


William G. Lee, president 
of the Brotherhood of Rail- 
way Trainmen, entered serv- 
ice as brakeman at Emporia, 
Kansas, on the Atchison, To- 
peka & Santa Fe Railway in 
1879, when 20 years old; 


brakeman and conductor un- 


438 “HISTORY OF AMERICAN, RAIBWAYS 


til 1884; deputy recorder of deeds Ford County, Kansas, four 
years; conductor Union Pacific from 1889 to 1895; first vice 
president Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen 1895-1909; pres- 
ent position since 1909. 

With these brief notes the demonstration of the open door 
of opportunity and service in the railway field must close. 
Though it were to “stretch out to the crack of doom,” chang- 
ing with each moon, it could not illustrate more clearly the 
democratic nature of railway service. Not a single man in 
this list has reached his position of authority and responsi- 
bility by any royal road of chance, birth, education or “pull.” 
The spade in the hand has been worth more than the silver 
spoon in the mouth to all of them. Each in his time and 
place has “made good” and the directors of more than two 
hundred roads are on the alert for men with the like execu- 
tive talents to succeed the veterans of today. The mien named 
above are merely near the apex of the pyramid of railway labor 
whose base includes the half million clerks, section men and 
shop helpers enlisted in an occupation whose highest rewards 
are open to all that have the ambition, will and capacity to rise. 

No educational or social test limits the opportunity in rail- 
way service. There are several college graduates among 
those named, but the marked majority have entered the lists 
without any education beyond the grammar classes of the 
public schools. They have all graduated in the school of 
observation, experiment and experience. As the late A: H.- 
Smith of the New York Central said: “Ninety-five per cent 
of the railway problem is human.” ‘The railway official who 
does not study men does not get very far. The link of human 
sympathy is the most important link in the chain that 
stretches from the president’s chair to the loneliest cabin on 
the line. 

It is upon the human sense, the bond of sympathy between 
railway managers and railway employes, the source from 
which all graduate, that the peaceful, progressive administra- 
tion of transportation depends. This is something that no 


RAILWAY DOOK OF OPPORTUNITY 439 





laws or regulation can establish or promote. It is the essen- 
tial factor in the brotherhood of man. Upon it rests the con- 
tinuous success of American railways. 


A Word in Conclusion 


In the preceding chapters no attempt has been made to 
present an exhaustive history of American railways. That 
would require at least a dozen volumes each the size of this 
and then would leave much of the field unexplored and un- 
represented. The story of the development of the locomotive 
alone from anything like original data would call for years 
of research and the possession of technical knowledge and 
expert skill in selection and assembling of the material far 
beyond the aim of this primary history. The evolution of 
passenger and freight cars, including the post office car and 
the railway mail service, would fill another volume. Railway 
accidents, inseparable from the speed, weight and multiplica- 
tion of transportation units, and the innumerable rules and 
devices adopted to reduce them to a minimum, would justify 
separate treatment. It is a gratifying fact that, proportion- 
ately to the forces and risks of railway operation, fatalities 
in train accidents have been reduced practically 73 per cent. 
This statement is borne out by the following figures: 


Fatalities in Railway Accidents 


Other Persons 
Year. Passengers. Employes. Trespassers. Non-Trespassers. Total 
1922 = 22 200 1,241 2,431 2,454 6,326 
1890.... 286 2,451 3,062 536 6,335: 


Note that the total fatalities in 1922 were practically the 
same as in 1890, the first year for which similar figures were 
available. During the same period the growth of railway 
traffic is reflected in the following statement: 


Year. Passengers Carried 1 Mile. . Freight Tons Carried 1 Mile. 

EAS PA Neco 2 ney SE cane 35,663,147 ,324 341,018,000,000 

E890 -Sarkeee ees 11,847,785,617 76,207,000,000 
Increase ct ce 23,815,361,707 264,811,000,000 
Increase (per ct.) 200 347 


440 HISTORIAOE AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





If fatalities had increased ‘relatively to traffic, the mortality 
in 1922 would have been over 23,500 instead of 6,326. The 
fatalities to non-trespassers include those of automobile parties 
at crossings and should be classed as suicides. 

The genesis and expansion of railway unions, until they 
practically include the entire working staff outside of the 
executives and leading officials, might well be made the sub- 
ject of a large volume, which should include brief biographies 
of their leading spirits. A companion volume would be needed 
to cover strikes and threatened strikes and legislative attempts 
to deal with imperiled transportation. 


The Interstate Commerce Commission in Session. 





Reading from Left to Right—Commissioners Cox, Campbell, Aitchison, McChord, Hall, 
(Chairman), Meyer, Eastman, Esch, Lewis and cManamy. Commissioner 
Potter declined to pose for. the camera. 


No history of American Railways would approach com- 
pleteness that did not devote at least one or two volumes, as 
large as this, to a digest and analytical review of the hearings, 
rulings and reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission 
from 1887 down. From a membership of five the Commission 
has gradually been expanded to eleven. The accompanying 
illustration shows the Commission sitting in banc. 

In the conscientious exercise of its functions, which have 
been expanded from Regulation to Administrative Control 
since 1887, rests the future of American railways. The Com- 
mission, or a majority of it, is independent of all outside in- 
fluences, unless its judgment may be occasionally forced by 
the Railroad Labor Board, as in 1920, in the matter of wages 


RAILWAY DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 441 





and conditions of employment. It might be relieved of this 
by Act of Congress vesting in the Commission the right tc 
review decisions of the Board tending to force advances in 
rates and fares. 

When all other railway history was exhausted there would 
remain the rise of railway architecture from the first shanty 
built to shelter the ticket seller of the Delaware & French- 
town Railway down to the monumental structures illus- 
trated in the preceding chapter and the last word in 
union stations nearing completion in Chicago as this History goes 


to press. sar. 
It is not known definitely where the first railway station 


in America was built. It may have been, and probably was, 
in Baltimore or at either end of the Camden & Amboy Rail- 
way. But here is a picture of what is claimed to be the first 
ticket offce—which may well serve as a tailpiece to this story. 





THE FIRST TICKET OFFICE 
Delaware & Frenchtown Ry. 


THE SPIRIT OF TRANSPORTATION 


—Copyright K. D. Ganaway, 


, 


THE EXPRESS* 
By R. Gorell Barnes 


1 


When a stillness reigns in the country lanes 
And the wayside station’s bare, 

Stirs a faint, far hum that seems to come 
From the spirits of the air; 

And the long rails thrill with a murmur till 
There’s a bursting shell of sound, 

A clattering roar, like the rumble of war, 
And a trembling of the ground— 

A scudding blast has come and passed 
With a shriek as of tortured souls, 

And along the track is the echoing back 
That slowly to silence rolls. 





Chicago 


*From Love Triumphant and other Poems—Longmans, 


Green & Co., 1913. 


It is I the proud, the strong, 

I who sway the lives of men, 
Beating out my deathless song 

As I speed’ through field and glen. 


IT. 


I romp with the dawn and startle the fawn 
From his couch in the moorland glade 

And merrily shake the cattle awake 
As they dream in the noontime shade: 

I am plodding on when the sunlight’s gone 
And mortals homeward creep, 

And I hammer my tune in the light of the moon 
When the world is locked in sleep. 

I cleave the night with my gleams of light 
And my heart’s glow bursting forth, 
And behind me I throw in a glittering bow 

The diadems of my wrath. 

O’er the hill, along the plain, 
Through the forest speeding, 
On the prairie’s stretching miles 
With fierce hunger feeding, 

Iam where the bison was, 
All the earth exploring, 

Through the gorge and to the heart 
Of the mountain boring, 

’Cross the river, by the sea, 
Onward rushing, roaring. 


III. 


I join the hands of distant lands, 
With my sister of the sea, 

~--T grapple with space as I onward race 
And fling it away from me. 

A mortal pack do I bear on my back 
And I roll with the wheels of fate, 

For asunder I tear the arms of despair 
And I stay not for love nor hate. 

I hurl a life far on my rollicking car 
As the breezes toss a feather; 

And I fill the great net that Labor has set 
And huddle the world together. 

I fling wide the door to the valley and moor 
And unfetter the laughter of men, 

And I strew on the coast a great holiday host— 
Which I gather to work again. 


IV. 


I am weighted down with the spoils of the town 
And the harvest of the field: 
Gaunt Famine shrinks back at my sudden attack 
And Plenty stands there revealed. 
Though I travel afar as the servant of War, 
I am fostermother of Peace; 
I bind the world’s charms on her outstretched arms 
And bring to her power increase. 
In my strength and my pride am I deified 
As the emblem of mortal command, 
For I spread o’er the world with the banner unfurled 
On the march of a mighty band 
And lead a great train, like a thought through the brain, 
To illumine the darkest land. 
The chimney tall starts up at my cail 
And the factory whistle screams, 
As from slumber I wake the shores of the lake 
And shatter the valley’s dreams. 
I am clad in the dress of stern usefulness 
And I build with a tyrannous rage: 
In my pride I roll on over all that is gone 
And I reck not of Beauty nor Age. 
For I am Progress, I am Power, 
I am the spirit of today: 
I fell the forest, clear the glade, 
I drain the marsh and crowd the earth. 
I roll onward, ever on 
Down my God-appointed way, 
Herald of the breaking morn, 
Calling to a nobler birth 
All the forces yet unborn 
And the greatness still to be. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 445 


SoME WorKs THAT HAvE BEEN CONSULTED 


In the preparation of this History, extending over twenty 
years, almost countless authorities on the different phases of 
railway organization, promotion, financing, construction, oper- 
ation, regulation, etc., have been consulted—and partly 
assimilated. The names of those that have been of the most 
assistance follow: 

Acworth, W.-oM.-" ~The Railways and the Traders.” John 

Murray, London, 1891. 

Acworth, W. M. “The Railways of England.” John Murray, 

London, 1900. 

Acworth, W. M. “The Elements of Railway Economics.” 

The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905. 

Acworth, W. M. “Historical Sketch of State Railway Owner- 

ship.’ > John ‘Murray, London, 1920. 
cemamubaticsthtacionm te nt haptervonelrie, .“\iields 

Osgood & Co., Boston, 1869. 152 pp. 

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. “Railroads: Their Origin and 

Problems.” G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1878. 
Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. “Notes on Railroad Accidents.” 

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1879. 

“American Railway Journal,” 1832. 
Bailey, W. F. “First Transcontinental Railroad.” W. F. 

Bailey, Pittsburgh, 1906. 

Baldwin. “History of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831- 

1924.” Philadelphia, 1924. 

Beadle, J. H. “The Undeveloped West; or Five Years in the 
- Territories.” National Publishing Co., Philadelphia, 1873. 
Bishop, Avard Longley. “State Works of Pennsylvania.” 

Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, New Haven, Conn., 

1907. 

Boag, George L. “Manual of Railway Statistics.” The Rail- 

way Gazette, London, 1912. 

Brown, W. H. “History of the First Locomotives in Amer- 

ica.” D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1871. 

Census Reports of the United States, 11th to 14th Reports. 
Woodson, E. R. “Railway Accounting Procedure.” 1922. 


446 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Cleveland, F. A., and Powell, F. W. “Railroad Promotion and 
Capitalization in the United States.” Longmans, Green 
& Co., London, 1909. 

Daggett, Stuart. “Railroad Reorganization.” Harvard Eco- 
nomic Studies, Houghton, Mfflin & Co., Boston, 1908. 
Davis, John P. “The Union Pacific Railway.” S. C. Griggs 

& Co., Chicago, 1894. 

Dewsnup, E. R. “Railway Organization and Working.” Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1906. 

Dunbar, Seymour. “History of Travel in America.” Bobbs- 
Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 1915, 4 vols. 

Fink, Henry. “Regulation of Railway Rates on Interstate 
Freight Traffic.” Evening Post Job Printing Office, New 
York, 71905. 

Gillette, Halbert :P.. <“ Handbook, of Gost<Datar’™ My ronaG 
Clark Publishing Co., New York and Chicago, 1907. 

Grierson, J. “Railway Rates: .English and Foreign.” Ed- 
ward Stanford, London, ‘1886. 

Hadley, Arthur Twining. “Railroad Transportation: Its His- 
tory and Its Laws,” G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1885. 

Haney, Lewis H. “A Congressional History of Railways in 
the >United States.” “State Printer,iMadisony Wis: 

Harper’s Monthly Magazine, 1850-1924. 

Hill, James J. “Highways of Progress.” Doubleday, Page & 
Co., New York, 1910. 

Husband, Joseph. “Story. of the Pullman Car; AWC Me: 
Chiro & Go. ..Chicago,. 1917. 

Interstate Commerce Commission, Reports 1887 to 1923. Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 37 vols. 

Interstate Commerce Commission Statistics of Railways of 
the United States, 1888-1922. Government Printing Of- 
fice, Washington, 35 vols. 

Jeans, J. S. “Railway Problems.” Longmans, Green & Co., 
London, 1887. 

Johnson, Emory R. “American Railway Transportation.” D. 
Appleton & Co., New York, 1903. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 447 


Kennan, George. “E. H. Harriman, a Biography.’ Hough- 
tons Mifflin & Co., Boston; 1922: 2 vols. 

Kirkman, Marshall M. “The Science of Railways,” 14 vols., 
1898. World Railway Publishing Co., New York and 
Chicago. 

Lardner, Dionysius. “Railway Economy.” Taylor, Walton 
& Maberly, London, 1850. 

Loree, L. F. “Railroad Freight Transportation.” D. Appleton 
& Co., New York, 1922. 

Mackenzie, F. “Historical View of the United States.” Mack- 
enzie & Dent, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1819. 

McPherson Locan Gi) “ThesWotking’ of the -Railroads?’ 
Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1907. 

McPherson, Logan G. “Transportation in Europe,” Henry 
Holt & Co., New York, 1910. 

Mayer, Hugo R. “Government Regulation of Railway Rates.” 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1905. 

Monkswell, Lord. “French Railways.” Smith, Elder & Co., 
London, 1911. 

Mossop, C. P. “Railway Operating Statistics.” The Railway 
Gazette, London, 1911. 

Newcomb, H. T. “Railway Economics.” Railway World 
Publishing Co., Philadelphia, 1896. 

Pearson, H. G. “An American Railroad Builder, John Murray 
Forbes.” Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1911. 

Phillips, Ulrich B. “Transportation in the Eastern Cotton 
Belt.” Columbia University Press, New York, 1908. 

Poor’s “Manual of the Railroads of the United States.” H. V. 
& H. W. Poor, New York, 1868-1924. 56 vols. 

Pratt, Edwin A. “Railways and Their Rates.” John Murray, 
London, 1905. 

Richards, R. C. “Railroad Accidents; Their Cause and, Ere- 
vention.” Chicago, 1906. 

Ringwald, J. L. “Development of Transportation Systems in 
the United States,” 1888. 

Sanborn, John B. “Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of 
Railways.” University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1899: 


448 HISTRY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





Seymour, Silas. “Western Incidents Connected with the 
Union Pacific Railroad.” Van Nostrand, New York, 1867. 

Smith, Wm. Prescott. “Great Railway Celebrations of 1857.” 
D. Appleton & Co., 1858. 

Stretton, Clement KE. “Safe Railway Working.” Crosby, Lock- 
wood & Sons, London, 1893. 

Tanner, H. S.. “Canals and’ Railroads of the United States.” 
Tanner & Disturnell, New York, 1840. 

The Railway Library. An Annual Collection of Articles, Ad- 
dresses, Etc. on Railway Subjects, 1909-1915, inclusive. 
Bureau of Railway News and Statistics, Chicago. 

Tomlinson, W. W. “The North Eastern Railway, Its Rise 
and Development.” Andrew Reid & Co., Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, 1914. The N. E. traces its rise to the ees 
ton & Darlington Ry. and “Locomotive No. 1.” 

Turner, (Walter V. «(ThevAir Brakevasmhelated sto ser ooress 
in Locomotion.” 1910. 

Turner & Dudley. “Development in Air Brakes for Rail- 
roads.” Westinghouse Air Brake Co., Pittsburgh, 1909. 

Warren, J. G. H. “Century of Locomotive Building by Rob- 
ert Stephenson & Co., 1823-1923.” Andrew Reid & Co., 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

Washington, W. D’H. “Progress and Prosperity,’ National 
Educational Publishing Co., 1911. 

Webb, Walter Loring. “Economics of Railroad Construc- 
tion.” John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1906. 

Wellington, Arthur M. “The Economic Theory of the Loca- 
tion of Railways.” Railroad Gazette, New York, 1877. 
Westinghouse, “Air Brake Tests.” Westinghouse Air Brake 

Co., Wilmerding, Pa., 1904. 

Walliams; is. (Co “The. Economics? ofe Railway, irausport: 
Macmillan & Co., London, 1909. 

Wilson, William B. “History of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company.” Zi vols. Henry. Ts Coates (Co eb hiladete 
phia, 1899. 

Wilson, W. Hassell. “Brief Review of Railroad History.” 
Allen, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia, 1895, 53 pp. 

To this list might be added innumerable volumes, pamphlets, 


& 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 449 


addresses, and other ephemeral literature on railway sub- 
jects passing in review during twenty-two years devoted 
to the study of current railway affairs. If the reader has 
any curiosity to judge the exhaustless fund of printed 
matter on all phases of rail transportation, he is referred 
to “The Catalogue of Books on Railway Economics,” a 
volume of 446 pages gotten out by the Bureau of Railway 
Economics, Washington, D. C., 1912. It would take an- 
other volume almost as large to bring this Catalogue up 


to date. . 
eee. ke 


To the enumerated and unenumerated sources of informa- 
tion, detailed and general, which have contributed in printed 
page, spoken word or illustration to this outline sketch of the 
second most essential industry in the United States, most 
. sincere acknowledgement is unqualifiedly made. Only the nar- 
rative thread that binds the scraps together is “mine own.” 


SLASON THOMPSON. . 
February 12, 1925. 


ADDENDA A 
THe BaLpwin LocoMoTIvE WorKS 


Scattered through the pages of this History will be found small cuts 
showing the progress in the design and manufacture of locomotives 
attributed to Matthias W. Baldwin and the company perpetuating his 
name. Beginning with “Old Ironsides” at the very dawn of railway 
development on this continent, the list now numbers over 58,000, of almost 
every description and size from a few tons apiece up to the giant articu- 
lated Mallet of over 430 tons. 





HEAD OFFICE AND WORKS, PHILADELPHIA, 19.6 ACRES. 


During the Great War a large part of the locomotive plant was con- 
verted into a munition factory, which before its end was credited with 
the following output: 6,565,355 3-inch shells, 1,959,974 rifles, 1,863,900 
cartridge shells besides large quantities of miscellaneous munition items. 
The aggregate value of its war contracts with those of the Standard Steel 
Works and other subsidiaries, including locomotives, was approximately 
$250,000,000. 











EDDYSTONE PLANT ON DELAWARE RIVER 616 ACRES. 


ADDENDA B 


GROWTH OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Within a century, from an insignificant tramway carrying 
granite blocks for Bunker Hill Monument, the railways of the 
United States, by decades, have shown the following amazing 


growth : 

States 1835] 1840] 1850] 1860 | 1870 | 1880 1890 1900 | 1910t | 1920 
Mabaimas- samen toe 46 46 75 743] 1,429] 1,851] 3,148) 4,219] 5,022] 5,377 
Arkansas strani some cie Ltr late eats 38 256 89 QyL 0S |e 7041 |e oOo OS2 
California we Facer rel ee else eee ees 23 925] 2,220) 4,148) 5,744) 7,655] 8,356 
Colorad OF: eee wih ne cee | one Na ote ell betta: [ite ete s 157) 1,531] 4,154] 4,587] 5,519] 5,519 
Connecticut ane 102} 402 601 742 954} 1,007; 1,023] 1,000} 1,001 
Delawarem.e too 16 39 39 127 224 280 328 346 335 335 
Hl Oridarepee ae te eos | anon 21 402 446 530] 2,390] 3,272] ~4,370)- 5,212 
GeOrcia pve et Asche nces 185| 643] 1,420] 1,845] 2,535] 4,105] 5,639} 7,020] 7,326 
LOAN OMe eee Oe 2 eae wo ee Seacel as ietede' [Soerats S aySione.« 220 941 1,261 2,168} 2,877 
I BNC SEVOS IEE. 4 nm Sie ug eo en eae Geel Geet 111] 2,799) 4,823] 7,955] 9,843) 10,997] 11,876| 12,188 
Undianaees eee cee SIN ae | eae 228) 2,163) 3,177] 5,454] 5,891 6,469 7,420] 7,426 

OWiaere tieremter ate cae uicegars (fn eke titel ons, chewed snaienerts 655) 2,683] 5,235] 8,347) 9,180] 9,733] 9,808 
ANG Gree te eer el ere ee es | eae ieeierte eek O11 13: 439 18: 8061 7-857 19) 2° 9: 00718. 9.388 
Kentucky Woes oe 15 28 78 534] 1,017] 1,598] 2,694) 3,059} 3,518] 3,929 
Louisiana aiken - 40 40 80 339 479 633/ 1,658] 2,824) 5,469] 5,223 
Vi aT Ga ee ae 11} 245 472 786| 1,013 1,313 1,915 22482295 
Marland:and. Ds Cs 2.2] -117| 213). 259 386 671} 1,012 1,168] 1,407 1,413] 1,472 
Massachusetts........ 113} 301)1,035| 1,264] 1.480] 1,893) 2,094) 2,118} 2,109} 2,106 
Maichipane aieue. ss. wena 50} 342 779) 1,638] 3,931 6,789| 8,193] 8,985] 8,734 
Minnesotatiucan cs. | eel eerie seein laoe ste 072) 3.10817 -5,466]-6,942|) 856691 5 9,114 
Mississippitiere a vee note seen 75 862 990] 1,183] 2,292] 2,919] 4,413) 4,369 
IMISSOUTER aE ee een oe | karte se aca 817] 2,000] 4,011} 5,897] 6,867] 8,078] 8,117 
Montana bicker de: AEH Recceaie t 48} 2,181 3,010} 4,207) 5,072 
INebraskazmun.. .: ...| 1,812] 2,000] 5,274] 5,684] 6,067] 6,166 
INE Va Caterer rote eae ot emare | aes [latte a ie 593 769 925 909} 2,277] 2,160 
New Hampshire......]..... 53| 467 661 736| 1,015 1,133 1230) 246 1s 2o2 
New Jersey.......... 99} 186] 206 SOO0let 125 lo OL a2 OS4 92237 wee 255s, SOL 
INew York seo stain oats 104} 374]1,361| 2,682} 3,928] 6,019) 7,462] 8,121} 8,416] 8,390 
North, Carolinave.. sacle 53} 154 937] 1,178] 1,499] 2,904) 3,808] 4,734] 5,522 
North Dakota...... =. ines 35 635) 1,940) 2,731) 4,201} 5,311 
OUIOM aoe ee roe lone 30] 571] 2,946] 3,538) 5,912 7,719} 8,774!) 9,128| 9,002 
Oklahoma. ert aati Bees Pe 275 12 13\ 92-150), 978), 6,572 
OLresOnires rere yt Are ees cee eke [en cope mtarate oil soeeees. aoe 159 582 12691 mateo Slee 27 3,305 
Pennsylvania. ....... 318] 754]1,240] 2,598] 4,656] 6,243] 8,307} 10,277} 11,084 11,551 
Rhode Island........ Put pecs 50| 68 108} 136] 210 212 212 212 211 
South Carolinas. .c..- 137| 137) 289 973| 1,139] 1,429); 2,096} 2,795} 3,410] 3,814 
South Dakotar sth he ace Le See bas 30 630] 2,485) 2,850} 3,948] 4,276 
Tennessee sana cots ate 1,253] 1,492) 1,824] 2,710} 3,124) 3,809} 4,078 
Pexae iirc wince Ne eat ate kph Nacoctnt 307| 711] 3,293) 7,911] 9,873] 14,243] 16,125 
LOU We on pd Det a aad (re tt WAR ERA Sear iee 257 770| 1,090) 1,547 1,986} 2,161 
Viermontrmeriacnce cs Aicd Pahibicacal Base 290 554 614 912 913; 1,012] 1,081 1,077 
Vit Oiniaeemy cro es 93) 147] 384] 1,379] 1,486] 1,826| 3,142] 3,729] 4,443] 4,703 
Washtne tomer asa vcr | ee ete cote | aerate [iiwets) <8s pate 274| 1,699] 2,890] 4,858] 5,587 
West Virginia...... bills 387 694| 1,306] 2,198} 3,526) 3,996 
Wisconsin........ - 20 905} 1,525] 3,130] 5,468] 6,496) 7,328) 7,554 
WA Tepes baie, ce Seo: Boece ytd PENA OH Bacto rccam Geel Per ecaenal Martranetc 472 941) 1,228) 1,600) 1,931 
Arizona. ‘ 384] 1,061 1,511 2,097| 2,478 
New Mexico..... 643} 1,284] 1,752] 2,999] 2,972 
Alaska wae. : Pepeart. ys eS a eae 246 

Ota ieee eee 1,098!2 81819 021!130.635!152,922!193,671 159.2711192,940 238,609'253,090 


tExclusive of switching and terminal companies—1,614 miles in 1910; 1,743 miles 


in 1920. 


ADDENDA C 


THREE DECADES OF RAILWAY PROGRESS 


Item 
(m=Thousands) 


Population. ack eee 
Miles of Lines (operated)..... 
Miles of All Track........... 


Net Capitalization (m)....... 
Net Cap. per Mi. of Line..... 
Net Cap. per Mi. of Track... 


Revenues from Operation (m) 
Revenues per Mile Operated. . 
Expenses of Operation (m)... 
Exp. of Op. per Mi. Operated. . 
Net Rev. from Operation (m).. 
Net Rev. per Mile Operated... 
Ratio of Exp. to Revenues.... 


Receipts from Pass. (m)...... 
Receipts from Freight (m).... 
Receipts from Mail (m)...... 
Receipts from Express (m)... 


Passengers Carried (m)....... 
Passengers Carried 1 Mi. (m).. 
Avg. Receipts per Pass. Mile 
Avg. Passengers in Train..... 
Avg. Journey per Pass. (m)... 


Freight Tons Carried (m).... 
Freight Tons Car. 1 Mi. (m).. 
Avg. Receipts per Ton Mile 

Cont lls) veers Glare, ree hee sae 
Average Tonsin Train....... 
Avg. Haul per Ton (miles).... 


Locomotives (number)....... 
Locomotives Weight without 

Tender i(tons) iene one 
Passenger Cars (number)..... 
Freight Cars (number)....... 
Freight Cars Capacity (tons).. 


Employes (number).......... 
Emp. per 100 Mi. of Line.... 
Employes Compensation..... 
Proportion of Gross Earnings. 


Prop. of Operating Expenses. .|_ 


Per Employe per year........ 


Proportion of Gross Earnings. . 





1893 1903 
66,970,496} 80,983,390 
169,780 205,313 
221,864 283,821 
$8,831,603} $10,281,598 
50,293 SO D9 
39,818 36,222 
1,220,751 1,900,846 
7,190 9,268 
827,921 1,257,538 
4,876 6,125 
392,830 643,308 
2,314 3,133 
67 .82% 66.16% 
$301,492 $421,705 
829,054 1,338,020 
28,445 41,709 
23,631 38,331 
593,061), 694,891 
14,229,101) 20,915,764 
2.108 2.126 
42 46 
23.97 30.10 
745,119 1,304,394 
93,588,112} 173,221,279 
8.78 7.63 
184 310 
125 .60 132.80 
34,788 43,871 
1,565,460 2,606,587 
31,384 38,140 
1,013,307 1,653,782 
24,319,200} 48,622,125 
873,602 TFSI 2 SO 
Sisley 639 
$488,360,400/$775,321,415 
40% 40.78% 
59.05% 61.65% 
$558 $591 
$36,514,689) $57,849,569 
aR BS 282 
2.99% 3.04% 


96,512,407} 112,000,000 


253,470 
379,508 


$15,330,131 


60,481 
40,395 


3,125,136 
12,329 
2,169,969 
8,561 
955,167 
3,768 
70.02% 


$695,988 
2,198,931 
50,053 
78,536 
1,043,603 


34,672,685 
2.006 

me) 

33.31 


2,058,035 
301,730,291 


7.29 
445 
144.40 


65,597 


5,247,760 
SARIN NTE 
2;273,564 
86,988,595 


1,864,303 
730 


$1,405,080,826 


43.99% 
63.29% 
$797 


524 
4.08% 


248,816 
404,414 


$19,468,095 
78,242 
48,139 


6,413,230 
25,175 
4,990,828 
20,058 
1,422,402 
Syspil e/ 
77.82% 


$1,153,571 
4,662,050 
93,756 
153,744 
992,523 


38,049,173 
3.032 
66.8 

38 .3 


2,411,239 
414,347,458 


Lie 25 
662 
172 


66,964 


6,897 ,292 
55,020 
2,359,685 
100,818,376 


1,904,807 
766 
$3,077,945,911 
47.99% 
61.67% 
$1,616 


$127,331,960/$340,632,054 


1,369 
3E 1% 


D2Se 
342. 


260. 


Arowro 


ADDENDA D 
COwNneERSHIP oF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Starting with a few millions hestitatingly invested by ad- 
venturous spirits in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more and Charleston, and loaned by speculative capitalists of 
Great Britain and Holland, the capital stock of American rail- 
ways is now held by nearly a million shareholders, while their 
bonds have an equally wide distribution, almost all held in 
America. The number of stockholders in 30 leading roads 
reported in 1923 was as follows: 


Shareholders 

Name of Company Dec. 31, 1923 
Pac ite Vivica andy We i oa MnUn ee eRES CRAs Lea slay iatere b a oe 142,527 
PLCHISGOM MODE Ka nO boatitas HGshas) LHSh use oui od Siete ore eis e 67,118 
POUe eT CAT Che en he Tew y eal nT ack av abiohe wwe 60,662 
One aC ive lens a ctanercies ap + Le Sahn ee nae bVore he 
Corea tem One rt wera eels, & cine HESS Geewlecd wat eis 4 44,742 
INIGSE RC Giiae EACH ICie mutes ce trted fos than ahd ro Reps cote a obeh bial beak» 37,991 
WegveeY Of lveCentra lee Syma uu titi ah ieee ataaety delta ik mes 34,502 
PAIL OF CMLCEs Le) TO Sars al ac fess chal Ve wie is al otuaeece 33,395 
NewYork: News Haventeirartiord.. ec.) eens 24,796 
WiCcacO tN a waniceeuarr trian Moc. yds cli, Bey eed 22,518 
Gricdaso. CoUNOEt haw 6 Steric iss} onder oh cree oeh. baad 20,059 
LMiT AML OTICE Al: Bieta namie iat. ok. ela ce terre Cleese A Gk coke 19,323 
Boston QML aries: metas Pirear es Gt Sordi cave cloth gi dd aie Ohare late 16,642 
TROL ig ruben le ving © cette s cet. od ther tsi g)s setae G edible Aa dgeeie as 16,095 
Be ecraL ic Aliya Vil pte we Gir, Lae Luks ade ec Sialeie Mine oy Ales 15327 
orien! Fe ATit OS UINe AS aS oe sien: see eer ce dw choc a eeu 14,495 
Phicasomnackmisiatds Gwelactic:, RVs... snl arose teen 14,426 
No eiolicnes VV esternvilvic ho dom un atvie a the. i tetas Sek 13,585 
Debt Ware WEIS ON AACN eee eft ce cers wield ibaa Gee 11,665 
Pere ver Ot Coe Arr Rl co nee As oe tie sob woe al Wain oe sioane 9.801 
Mesa DO ACR Com CTO: uch a chit ix. «ole RicldipCeeaks stale aia 4 where 9,320. 
AUR ict open S ERECT LL WRENN ay Oh ee Si aageaty ctabollap eg a" ake 9,310 
BITSSO Ubi MeL ACC iter vitae ast hota Aion Pema onus 8 Siacaliay 7,936 
Pigs villewar me INaSO VILE TR Rey cee hi alin vatde. eres dat ciate 6,794 
Delaware lackawana cor: Western R.Ro ry. fk es 6,758 
renew cep iat Taney ck, ok acgla) eiotace he eee eee 5,972 
PA Sealit le tea tease L Oxas its wiley be sassy ntdietmlevwiaeie ee teate ace 5,595 
ere i mrs tel it ema hans elec cs oh idee tees sce ba’ s 5,025 
Simbisotist Oa TaniciSCG, RYyserd «a leek ere eee hee tee 4,476 
Sea OA LC RIT COR oR hay ie oem a doe oe a gas Sie dae e 3,020 

QA, og Dae a RUSS PA dR A ae i Aa Oe cB 736,407 


Stock in several large roads not included in this list is held by 
trustees. 


ADDENDA E 
GROWTH OF THE Wokr.p’s RAILWAYS 


From the folowing table the reader can get a comprehen- 
sive view of the world’s railways. Great Britain, which heads 
the list by virtue of being first in the field of practical opera- 
tion, was superseded by the United States before the end of 
the first decade. 2 | 








MILES OF ROAD COMPLETED 





COUNTRY 
Opened} 1840] 1850] 1860 | 1870 | 1880} 1889 1899 1910 | 1921* 
Great Britain....... 1825 |1,857|6,621]10,433)/15,537|17,933}] 19,943] 21,666} 23,280] 23,733 
United States....... 1827 |2,818/9,021/30,626]52,922/93,296]160,544/189,2951236,422/250,983 
Canadas sacperme ocr 1836 16 66] 2,065] 2,617} 7,194] 12,585) 17,250) 24,731] 39,771 
Brances.7. sees eee oc PS2ZS Gl oe 1,714] 5,700}11,142)16,275| 21,899] 26,229] 29,364] 132,030 
Germany ree oes 1835 | 341]3,637| 6,979]11,729|20,693| 24,845] 31,386] 36,235] 34,689 
Belgiuni. .aee eee S 1835 207| 554] 1,074] 1,799] 2,399] 2,776] 2,883] 2,888] 2,913 
Austria (proper)..... LSSie| oe 817] 1,813] 3,790} 7,083} 9,345] 11,921] 13,591] 14,434 
Russia ce. eer eee 1SSSel eee 310} 988] 7,098]14,026] 17,534] 26,889] 35,347/49,081 
Italy ne oe wehoatene 1839 13] 265] 1,117] 3,825] 5,340} 7,830] 9,770] 10,425] 9,747 
Hollands these oa 1839 10} 110) 208} 874] 1,143] 1,632} 1,966) 2,235) . 2,389 
Switzerland: .....3.. 18445 |e: 15} 653] 885] 1,596] 1,869} 2,342] 2,791] 3,246 
Hungary ee 1846 |.....] 137] 1,004] 2,137] 4,421] 6,751] 10,619] 12,177] 14,152 
Denmarki ney... 134 Janae 20 69| 470) 975] 1,217] 1,764] 2,121) 2,635 
Spain ie. seen es eee 1848) bee. 17} 1,190] 3,400] 4,550} 5,951] 8,252] 8,961} 9,517 
Chili nese aes 18514} hecean eee 120} 452) 1,100} 1,801} 2,791} 3,451} 5,395 
Brazilsctace were cto 185415 eels 134) 504) 2,174) 5,546] 9,195] 11,863] 17,438 
British India........ 13532) see | Saaee 838] 4,771] 9,162] 15,887] 23,523] 30,809] 36,735 
Norwavneoe ae terre AR SCY 9 ree ace, 42 692| 970 970} 1,231} 1,608] 2,037 
Sweden aes saree FLOSS Onl cat adie are 375| 1,089] 3,654] 4,899] 6,663] 8,321] 9,287 
Atrcentines REDUDIICN |e 1S575 lee oe nee eeelen eee 637] 1,536] 4,506) 10,013] 14,111] 21,161 
Turkey: ine ropes malin ccm lee sere oe 41 392 727| 1,024) 1,900) 1,967} 1,236 
Pere eee ake eens Beri Mana fara sal Pere bis 47 247| 1,179 993} 1,035} 1,470} 1,889 
Portugalee eee ae eR ered (re Se ct eB ne 42 444 710] 1,118] 1,475] 1,689) 2,047 
Greece ines ee cies AS69 Fle eae | Sept ee eae 6} , if 416 604 845} 1,507 
Wrugtayeree sco ere LS69y bes eae heats | ecaeenes 61] 268 399 997] 1,371] 1,636 
MEXICO ay en ie oiets LSGBY Weeeee al oa aes trees 215} 655| 5,012] 8,503} 14,845} 15,805 
Roumaniavs<<.s he s.| sen om eles [aa pe] penis aos 20252] e591 GT 537) ued O20 7-0 7olme 240 
Australia tiercterctier tole Spent tote | snettens [chs Gates Lantos ued ome meee 789| 4,850} 11,111] 17,956] 26,143 
JADA eres idee Sere aL Od in | cep repel therare ne | sronetecte eters er 75 542] 3,632] 5,130} 6,202 
China acts. peor Rill eke RoD ft Rea-jeto eg Penis, 26 Payee Ral y Inne bs BOB 124 401} 4,997] 6,836 
BATICA Cites ole ee a Settee hrcaure | cates letetene licens | teres 583} 2,873) 5,353] 19,207| 25,647 





*Or latest figures. fIncludes industrial and local railways. fIncluding New 
Zealand. Including Finland and Asiatic railways. 


Under the treaty of Versailles there has been such a read- 
justment of boundaries and creation of new states carved out 
of old, that the next decade will have to take account of the 
railways of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, 
Estonia, Jugoslavia and Albania, at the expense of several of 
the better known European countries, 


INDEX 


*Indicates illustration. 


A 


Abandonment of unprofitable lines. 404 
Abbott, Dr. Liman, describes build- 


WOT AE Ties ni BO, Sten s gl ie vise 86 
maULNOL.? COTUFaltl loa cies sce 0Ms.«« 86 
Accidents, decrease in, 1890-1922.. 439 
first serious railway, 1833... 78 
inseparable from railway oper- 
ALTO Nee ciecrerchaye ee ahesieesieieeies 438 
proportion in train to other 
CATISCS Io as chavo lehihetens syste svee, sWais'e 213 
Acworth, Sir William M., on Amer- 
HCA RAW AV Sim cuareesieter cieteketereus 320 
DOLLA ME wep elec chev cyere «cutie <isve: ove 321 
*Adams, Charles Francis, Jr., por- 
Efal tamen stm eiccty cer Mie cre snare 189 
as president of the Union Pa- 
Chi Geer. eee cree Sated rata) trust shai. tess 269 
describes Massachusett’s reg- 
WLATLOTI ES cto Sets ete ahcreteiolede 6 See's 197 
father of state regulation..... 188 
Massachusetts railroad commis- 
SOME tie seeraai pst ales cis Mare <zo-e eye 189 
writes -aschapter of Erie./..... 189 
Adams, Prof. Henry C., first official 
Rall weavyeestatisticla time cerita: 242 
on railway capital in 1888.... 246 
reports on intercorporate rela- 
LLOMS Ries ce rae aeds Beis ors, s 311 
superintends commercial valua- 
CLOT OT U9 4. crust auche levers. « cies 289 
Adamson Act, a surrender to in- 
tiicdationmmnee tie. « 3leks 360 
Act establishes an _ eight-hour 
ASIC MC AV me cieteh etd eistooke otoneisue 359 


Law, what it cost the railways 359 
Additions and betterments, cost of 


under Federal control...... 374 
Cities) IRD a NARS Sica en Aas 390 

Adhesion of smooth wheel on 
STO OLD ital laneters ewes sic erste! evs-si/e 0 fe ay/ 
*Advertisement of reduced time... 112 

“Advisory Cabinet’? named by Di- 
TECtOme General ecm ec selene on 368 

*Air brakes applied by Stephenson 
ATMEL SOS gets tee ro cieteto ee se cre 203 
automatic train, how applied... 207 
ESSENLIAIDALtGe sate ccc cue. fe) a6 oie 207 
UESULOLIM MOLE terete ie crete aisicie ene 203 
*high speed passenger ......... 208 
MECESSICVMLOT eam. raters ares ff ere ace 204 
Straight 1 wae s co ee ress wees 5% 208 


Westinghouse first caveat ..... 207 


Alaska, purchased in 1867 at 2 
CENtSeanmacreveausemiecemisietoce 
*Albany & Schenectady track in 
LSOLM Rartslettesthe che ae nae 
*Alfred, Frank H., president Pere 
MarquetteeRy.o... so een ree 
*Allen,: Horatio, portrait ¢...3...... 
sent to England in 1828 to buy 
LOCONIOLiVeER cKO ea eae 
Amendment, Interstate Commerce 
ANCL Me eae Chet e tcba ac ates athe ats 
*“America,” first English locomotive 
Yor} UI SA Seta ticles ns pitts 

the earliest locomotive to land 

itl AinertCa wang tor Sona ee 
American army transported to 
MranCepe se treiale Totter eee 
*American Locomotive Works at 
SHCMEMECtA C Uae 5 omateiteieta atte 
Brooks plants Gli cose ws es oe cee 
American Railway Unions ........ 
Ames, Oakes, connection with 
Gredit@Mobiliemasc. + tence ee 
*«Amoskeag,” locomotive of 1851... 
Iywew Wenge. INNES odo cyuobebose uc 
ASE 1 Ee lS BLO Ga Vamsi ai ieiet tei toreice: 
proposed from Manhattan to 
Wakemiriert.cts «dete siete er ress 

Ark, The; dimensions of...5....... 
*Armstrong, Geo. B., memorial tablet 
TATiiutame wl epOntraltem oereten cee 
Grand Chief of Locomotive En- 
PINGEIS WE O/O- IOS sateen. cite 


*Ashtabula, mechanical dumper at... 
Assurances, President Wilson’s.367, 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, con- 
SELUCELOMMOL sete ster. ee ei vaheiens rele 

gets Chicago connection in 80’s 
*president of 
receivership and reorganization 
*Atlantic City Locomotive of 1896.. 


Atlantic Coast Line, thirteen lines 


oe eee eee eee eee ese 


MENG Cd Lif) ceepaver chess Cf tlerel alors 

traces its tracks back to 1830.. 

* Presidents: O faeeietacic aie slateretere ieee 
*Atlantic type locomotive, Southern 
Pacerticey 1. 90 Orrarrepersnesnsieat clones 
*Atterbury, W:. W., Director of 
American railway operation 

ity BranCe PMs cite oisheissa o avenesnere 


*in Brigadier General’s uniform. 


Automatic control lacked practical 
demonstration in 1906....... 


77 


418 
33 


31 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 





456 
Automatic couplers, difficulties at- 
tending adoption: «. se sneer 
train brake, what it meant to 
railway development......... 


train control, report on in 1923 
Auxiliary trackage provides for in- 
creased traffic, 1912-1922.... 


Baggage 
allowance 
Baggage car, cost of in early days 
ATIC ® IN OG ELI erelieyeletetoieuelersin eleel ers 
*early 


eoeee rece eo ee eee eee ee eee 


*primitive 
Baggage, how handled in England 
ATGMICUODE i si. eeteteteratelepncreranote 

how handled on American roads 
pieces y handled’, 2. cass eres 
*Baldwin, Lewis W., president, Mis- 
SOUPISUEACIIIC se% ee eters ciate eretetets 
*Baldwin, Matthias W., builder of 
(OMAR ETONSICeS mea suche eeteesote sie 
pioneer locomotive builder..... 
*fast passenger engine, 1848... 
*flexible beam truck locomotive, 
1842 
*locomotive, 
*locomotive, 
*locomotive, 
*Locomotive 
*Locomotive 
phia 

¥ Barn. pins d a OIt Cale canes ae ie 
first uses railways for his show 
profits by using the railways... 
saw trains stopped by buffaloes 
Baltimore agreement restored senior- 
Tha Ama ked Wiens GB Hee bled. 6 mS OIoe 
Baltimore & Ohio, breaking ground 
FOL IN oe LS2oe eis tet es siausiemiele 

COSt Det Mille ssrsiste elses erotelaiaiel 
*HtstestOne \OL erste s sekicie ceisler 
labor Ti10ts Mill OA aces eestor 
method of construction in 1832. 
opens all rail line to Wheeling, 
1854 
*president of 
‘reaches Chicago and St. Louis 
tracks roughly handled during 


ee ore eee eee eee eee ees © 


eee ere see e ee Sores eeeeese 


Works at Eddystone 
Works at Philadel- 


eo ewe eee see see esse e st toe 


eer eeet eee ewer oeeee 


Givil Witte ve nain sets ete ete le wes 
trip from Baltimore to Wheel- 
AGO WIM SS Fiancee atone ereraceeenet atonsys 


Beadle, J. H., trip on Union Pacific 
in 1868... 


eee ever eeeevreoere reve 


398 


43 
58 
43 
223 
ad 


112 
418 
118 
161 
105 


177 


= Belmontimincliie. im ster aedelaralecenetts 
Benton, Senator Thos. H., advo- 
cates National Central High- 

way 
Benton, Wyo., end of Union Pacific 
INV BOS. eae s wick ike ae ee 

HEC AINE in PU SOS te tee een ee 
*Besler, Wm. G., 
*president, Central R. R. of New 
Jersey 
*Bessemer, Sir Henry, 1813-1898.... 
rails, duty and cost, 1870...... 
rails, process discovered....... 
“Best Friend,’ first practical loco- 
motive built in America..... 
“Original “drawing ) Of)... seaneaees 
Awith train, sl G30nm cesar ete 
Betterments, dollar for to dollar for 
divideridSseriles se eee 
Bibliography 
Big ott Gi. | tainmen.. cee 250, 
Block signals, development of..... 
first automatic electric installed, 

1871 

first installed 

1863 
progress in 


se 6862.65 @ ee. ee Wnt) Op we sim 6 a 


er er] 


© 4) 8 a8 se ee) Ss) @ 0) 6 b.'6 Be) 8 6 wie 


in America in 
installation, 1907- 
19.29 Fetter aee: shee en 

Booms. 1ndusthial.e1 Ol 6 see a een 
Boston and New York connected by 
rail and water vin’ 1835 a0 en 
*Boston new South Station......... 
*Boston, track approaching 
SOULE Statlogne stl eee sence 

* BOX pCa Weatlyonicseice sateen 
*improved 
*Braddock’s battlefield in 1857...... 
*Brakess American caf .sisc isc sstien 
*detail of high speed passenger. . 
‘double sactlon: tciaceaieert eee 
*locomotive, Stephenson’s steam 
*primitives. the © lag anette canes 
*railway car about 18390....... . 
Brandies, Louis D., on the reward 
Of4 EfiCieENnCy ecaewiete ae iets 
*Breakwater dock at Cleveland...... 
*Bridge at Tunkhannock Creek, Penn. 
*early iron, near Elysville, Md. 


*highestw ine them worldr.. seer 
*over Hell Gate, 977 foot span 

RR ssaea Mints eee reece ae eG 385, 
*over the Susquehanna......... 
*railway, 91860 xoasseiccomi cmasatenel 


*720-foot span at Paducah, Ky.. 
*steel arch over Niagara, 1924.. 
*“Britannica,” first Cunarderiesseres 


168 


178 
179 
419 


420 
102 
163 
103 


St 
54 
55 


329 
445 
435 
211 


212 


211 


213 
358 


70 
281 


282 
58 
58 

113 

207 

208 

205 

208 

204 

205 


200 
324 
292 
109 
198 


386 
153 
14¢ 
293 
132 

85 





*Broad Street Station of Pennsyl- 
Vailaviweienine 1894: cy mrt t ens 


*Broadway, New York, in 1831.... 
*Brotherhood of Firemen’s card, 1876 
of Locomotive Engineers...... 

of Locomotive Firemen........ 
Buchanan, President, neutral on 
choice of Pacific route....... 

Budd, Ralph, president, Great 
Northern’ Ry eae. on ee 
Buffaloes, wild, stopped Barnum’s 
APS ANS CO WIL Sil heat aioe 
Building a railway described by Dr. 
PADDOLEME ata uea ache riecrrstarevers 

Burr, Aaron, journeyed from Ft. 
Stoddard to Washington..... 
*Byram, H. E., president, Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul....... 

C 

Cabs, engine, first adopted...... state 
California and New Mexico acquired 
Dyin Seinvthe, 409... i9 «os 
Camden & Amboy Ry. projected in 
GS Oradea stave: sess cnd ect coaieRate a a's 3 ot 
*Canal boat hauled up portage in- 
CLINE LSS Drank pe roto eearers cet Sc 
construction prior to 1840..... 
Hirten Original mCOSt 1OLe «0% cis.e 6 
SlockeatmlOCk port scuss lc decreas. 
PARInS AO fisthen «steel froin a\e +2 


rights of way used for railways 
*Canals afford time to paint landscape 
cost of before superiority of 


railways demonstrated....... 

cost of up to 1840...... niatsin ere 
early American....... ereteiiaterars 
eanlyae bing lisht pase ast +6 alejeiens 
favored by Washington..... ois 
tate, per.ton on early......... 
Canoe of the American Indian..... 
*Cantilever bridge over Niagara, 1883: 
Gapital scosts Of tall waySnus si. ss) 
in hands of public in 1908.... 

per mile of line in 1908........ 
Capitalization, 1848 and 1922...409, 
confused by _ intercorporate 
GWILEL SUID GES eisycter sities Sie ier sis ia, eis 
estimated by Prof. Adams in 
USO SMrevn ene cece ete oes ee 

AN TL GOA mente cette ties s caere ts! 
{ICTEASE Fit ALO OO ein cress ele so oss 

MEE Atel SOC eleva teteeie iets, 2. 5y 
official summary in 1888....... 


per mile of track in 1890...... 
rate of agreed upon in 1904... 


INDEX 


2167 
oot 
222 
248 
250 


168 


420 


216 


Carbondale & Honesdale Railway... 


*Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton...... 
*Charles, of Carrollton, in B & 
Ovgreup paintitigs. .. ele) e. 
Charles, of Carrollton, turns 

hrst Bac ON Sod Jo vies eee 


Carter, W. S., appointed Director of 
Labor under Federal control 


*Cassatt, Alex. J., Penn. R. R.’s great 
engineer president........... 

leader against rate abuses.... 
Castleton Cut-off 


oor eee eee te eee enon 


*Centennial Exposition, heaviest loco- 
Re henative. at wey gee al teehee: 
Exposition, 1876, made a _ suc- 
cessinbya thes tailwaySat sac 
Central Pacific, advantages in con- 
struction 

and Union Pacific, race of con- 
struction 
Central R. R. of New Jersey, pres- 
LGENE NOLS casas oe acces 
<Chairse: wroughts tony tall. «erste: s 
Charleston & Hamburg Ry. chartered 
ENULS 20s ate cree eee Met, 
Owe Nan Cedar icte aensister ete eels 
*Chase, products of, how transported 
*Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, along the, 
1857 
Chicago & North Western Ry., ante- 
GCEGENES OF sacchasjersceners ele rekers-< oh 
*chairman of board 
*president of 1924 
-Ohica cOmstationmots sci bersie’siciers 
Mima waltitie eLOOMl cleterests clei « 
*cross sectional view.......... 
*stub ends in trainshed.339, 341, 
*Chicago and Eastern Illinois Ry., 
Presidents Of wee nay kel eoep aie 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Ry., 
organized from minor roads 

* *president of 1924 
*Chicago, first locomotive landed in 
UT LSS Sis e tercs stars Colele: ehelarcneteuenst suse 

ELL OA oie ene ons erateiavece aistetenenteteects. 2 te 

*in) 1924, from) the airs... «atc 
TUCOLPOLALeG pill el SOA sere eialels ial 

not mentioned in Dickens’ Notes 
*Chicago Great Western R. R., pres- 
IdOHt Obs s vetsa cues Hameo ahs 


ee | 


| 


eo ec eee ee eee eee eee se toe es 


ee) 


eeereeeeoeenee 


457 





30 
43 


43 
368 
435 
353 
286 
407 
408 
40S 
224 
227 
173 
172 


419 


425 
96 
72 
83 
84 

186 
58 


422 





458 
*Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry., 
DLesidenteOse cert area 421 
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
CHOSSES> LOWareins cn sae nine ot 187 
ADLeEsi@ent LOL el 927 sate eich ecie ets 423 
*Chicago Union Station, architect’s 
Ta WING, eyotarcsrercrensee che estenetenete = 394 
ECONCOUMS Clee cures. <teltiois, etn she elate eettts 397 
wloatehbay deteWd Beane Wneeins Cesier uae Ore 380 
*near completion October, 1924.. 398 
“Ayaae(sie Keel yoke an Sido Onan 6 395 
*Eincinnatin tlood ecleermrieais ctr 309 
Civil War, railway conditions before 147 
TAL wayieuliie th Cots amour keremenee tele 147 
*Clark, Edgar E., associated with 
War 2B oardisins.cn cetersteieuaete 363 
Classification, 1919 revenues adopted 
ASWEDASIS Me seers oie ice ehoe eersrs 405 
*“Claremont,’’ Fulton’s successful 
StCAIME Ion ake cietetere tte ete eistr one are 19 
*Cleveland, mechanical dumper at.. 324 
*Coal burning locomotive, first..... 137 
*Coal car, early horse drawn...... 2 
Oba  SoOMaAtiG mal S24 fete rteretiatetele 64 
Bpastuance presenters tele 381 
*Colorado River, diverting it from 
SaltonmSinilc. cece siete 301, 306 
floods Imperial Valley......... 303 


turned back into its own channel 302 
Columbus, Joaquin Miller’s poem.. 12 
Commerce Art, 1920 amendment to 382 
Commerce Court, rise and fall of... 318 
Commission and War Board cooper- 


CO MUEN S retensteiey sieceitcker sues scsiepenete raters 363 
Commission, Interstate Commerce, 
AbtltUdeqrOtmemerasettescm aetek rer 325 
Hersounelmope tirSt eke aie erss 242 
*present membership of........ 440 


Committee of National Defense... 362 
Commodities, price of, 1900-1910... 330 
Community foots riot bill of 1877..: 266 
Competition, railway, begets discrim- 


LTAtLOM MIN TAaceS nemesis 254 
railways, gives way to Federal 
Tegulation comeces ote eie ee cers 240 


Complaints to I. C. C. mostly settled 
without reference to courts.. 243 

Compressed air used in brakes.... 207 

*Conductor, the inconsiderate, and 


the «weary, travelerosss ees 105 
Conductors, average pay of, 1888- 
LOD Sit etapteeis ctetere custo ese sy Meteie.cistale 251 
president of Order of......... 436 
*Conestocan WagOMS er cesilcls dere see ei 41 


Congress endorses Federal control 


aS emergency measure...... 369 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


Connections of early through routes 163 


Consolidation of railways under 

CommercesrA Cts eer cere 383 

Construction, railway, 1902-1911, 

DY SY CALS set cinte ects asteietetens se eate 5 2S 
decreased after 1890.......... 262 
recedes under regulation...... 262 
retarded during decade, 1912- 

OD Seeiete forsee Nevekel cbersentiers eoeee 404 

Contractor, railway, described by 

Dri PAbbotte aces vccerd terete 94 

Cooke, Jay, involved in Northern 

Paciiicw ban tuptoyemrercteentte 218 
recoups his fortune when North- 

ern Pacific resumes......... 219 

Cooley, Judge Thomas M., first an 

Nuale report Ole sce a eeetrcrns 243 


*first chairman of I. C. C., 1887 229 
on difficulties of regulation.... 253 
Cooper, Peter, builds his first Amer- 
ican. 1ocomotives.\. +b eee ise 34 
*inventor and philanthropist.... 35 
Cost of carriage not a controlling 


*factors im fixitie rates were 255 
Chi., Milw. & St. Paul rolling 

stock? ane 18545 seer eee cater Sis 
country highways..........-..-. 37 
American locomotives.......... BS: 
early British railways.......... 26 
early American railways....58, 131 
first Pullman sleeper......... 142 
moving freight on highway.... 37 
operation advances............ 359 
Tajlways,. LOO0s. sens -eielsnstererte 132 
railways estimated in 1868.... 245 
railways up to 1840...... a erent fe 
TailwayS UDP _tOwl SoU sep eeieetelens 100 
transportation in England in 
pre-railway days; << .)c sacs 7 


per mile of early railways.... 67 
*Cotton, train load of, in Oklahoma 


IN? US93 Mes cave 3 tates aketarceoreenenere 258 
*Couplers Glink. "and @pina-heseee cate 236 
automaticwead option |OLe sree 230 
*automatic, on freight car...... 237 
automatic, standard adopted... 238 
automatic, universal by 1900... 268 

* Coupling process #Ots eve ater 237 
Credit) Wobilier scandali.u. ene 180 


scandal investigated by Congress 181 
Credit, railway, crimped by inade- 

quateS seturns. «.sGecees eae 295 
*Crossing the Atlantic first by the 

‘‘Savannah’iij, swam niet 

the: plains, 1852455 five vas s fasteners 


INDEX 459 





*Crowley, Patrick E., president, New 


York -Gentral ssyvsteniasce csc 417 
*Cunarder, first, the “Britannica,’’ 
ES OM Ree akera ot accecores ae! ereie ene cauerete re 85 


*“Cyclopede,” horse locomotive..... 26 


D 
Daguerreotypes introduced in Amer- 
LCase SSO ee oes calc a 89 
Damming the Colorado flood...... 302 
*“Tyaniel Webster,” first soft coal 


burning locomotive. .123, 137, 138 
*Dearborn, on the Michigan Canal, 


PHBL OOS seroma ecm oi oere es 122 

Debs, Eugene V., organizes Amer- 
ican |! Railway, Union... 2.22. . 252 
*Delaware & Hudson Canal, bank of 30 
Shite tepuestGeiltem Oho stys costes sic Sie 
*present «president: cece + see. 428 
“perrersleomce, 15/0. nas. sso 4 os 31 
Eoeneraloticerel O24 canes cet, cles 32 

*Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
Ryeey presidente Of cae ses oc sche 432 
*Depew, Chauncey M., 1882....... 356 
MGA Mc lrcce aurea tim eror alee als 5 Ce 


legal and financial guide of 
three railway generations.... 355 
on regulation in Massachusetts. 200 
*Depot, first railway in America... 68 


Depression tries 102) oar. cele eeieleiee 392 
DeTocqueville on the Mississippi... 41 
Detroiter versa tunnel irene 316 
*DeWitt Clinton compared to modern 
LOCOMOLLV. Gio a ped store Stet one Weetiele 52 
*DeWitt Clinton locomotive and 
EAI Te seavevertassrshe ere eas AO Sil SS 
*Dice, Agnew T., president, Phila- 
delphiatucumeh ecadinigwrey erie. 421 
Dickens, Charles, experience cross- 
inlee themsp OLLage warteene nici 55 
* Dinan gar cat, marly = cicisiels eteles\ 3) eis erect LAO 
SIMO EL Liwesten ec ste tediccier otae.e tusvele: nie, 142 
Dining car first put in service..... 144 
Discriminations, law against....... 261 
evidence of hard to get........ 261 
Distribution of gross earnings...... B27, 


Dividends paid in 1890 and 1900... 268 

Dixon, Frank H., assists in compil- 
ing intercorporate report.... 311 

*Dock, freight, breakwater at Cleve- 


dari SA ee Se eee Ae oh fic 234, 327 
2 Docks sore water alitiemmracnset eee 253 
*Dodge, Gen. Grenville M., chief 


engineer of Union Pacific.... 168 
*Dog sledge in Alaska in 1880...... 217 


Dollar for betterments to each dollar 


Pot ALVIGendS Ceo demas oe ao 329 
Douglas, Stephen A., father of IIli- 
HOiSeslaid Merants fee asicereere: 124 
Drew, Daniel, part in Erie scandal 189 
SfreasurermOtahTie o. fees. cee 190 
*Dumper, mechanical, at Ashtabula, 
Obioy ides cote oe eaetitcicnis 328 
E 
Eads Bridge, after fifty years...... 221 
engineer septoll essai neie ss 220 
Earliest railway in America........ 30 


Early horse railway in Germany.... 2 

*railway depot in Schenectady... 68 
Earnings and expenses, first six 

months of Federal control... 370 

per mile dropped, 1870-1877..... 217 


Earthquake in San Francisco in 
LOO Geta totes aieis eres Perea e sists 299 
East and West joined at Promontory 
Tee L869) aeecces cla egcterereasne terse 180 
*Eddystone, Baldwin Locomotive 
Wiorkgarennse sce tats a eal eictenienc 450 


Effect of orders 27 and 28 on rev- 
enues and expenses in 1918 371 

Efficiency, railway, demonstrated by 
traffic handled 1916-1920.... 406 

Eight-hour day in the Adamson Act 361 


Efghth Decade, 1900-1910)......... 283 
*Electric locomotive, train and block 
Signalswenncc sce cote: Mee oes ke 387 


messages demonstrated, 1844... 80 
messages experimental, 1835... 80 
Elkins Act, forbidding special pref- 


GrenCes, eae cit sateie eee ete) 288 
“AON beh, ICUS BEIEY Ac bras el oan woe 107 
*Elliott, Howard, chairman, North- 

(ray LEVON, Ai ele amid Sue Bec 429 
*Empire State Express, locomotive 

oo 9 0 OZ eben c/s 4aicy Setcorscae ate no etiials 254 
Employes, advance in compensation, 

POLS SOL 7 eet eiarcicerierae @ tus ers vene 359 


Engineers, average pay of, 1888-1923 251 
life and accident insurance asso- 


CLALLO flat-rate o ae hte acts eke ate 249 

locomotive, Brotherhood organ- 
IZEC LOOSE cts hte slevuate ote wrelaoas 248 
*Gratidaichiete Obamas cee esol sane 436 

*English engine with Westinghouse 
altomaticu Dirakermuriie seen - - 209 
Equipment, cost of 1854........... 133 

*Ericsson, John, joint inventor of 
“The Novelty’... .a.s%seseiss 25 


460 


Erie, A Chapter of, told by Charles 
Krancisy AdamS.ae) reer susie oe 
ANOtMeT, MStOLY AN Olseie eaters 
Canal, America’s first important 
WALET Wa Vidtais eietonststa als late shaban te 
Canal, first cost and cost of 
deepening in 1835..... Boi tshtieis 
*Canal vin gi Saaec., sete. takes 
R. R. changed gauge from 6- 
foot to 4-ft. 8% in. in 1878.. 
construction of described by Dr. 
Lyman Abbott 


ee cee eee eee eee 


distinguished guests on opening 


excursion 
how it was handicapped by its 
charter 
(New York & Erie R. R.)... 


Cr 


Se 


opens line to Lake Erie in 1851 
Anresident: OL ‘jc cuatsuds saree ares 
projected without a» New York 
GELIMINAl he iake pace eee ers 
*scenery on, described by Wm. 
IMicIne0d is sites laste orate eieinree ss 


traffic on in 1841 and in 1923 
trip on, New York to Dunkirk 
ATUL BS eee Grace eye stave Severe auecwene 


*Evans, Oliver, amphibious locomotive 
*Oliver, early American inventor 
Evidence of discrimination difficult 
to: obtain (0) os ties cia ene 
Exorbitant rates per se unknown in 
Winited GStates sect scetar) erevelans 
Expansion of traffic, 1915 to 1920... 
period of, 1897-1907........... 
railway, reaches its height..... 
Expenses, advances in items 
volved L900 [tO nl GOR erste cern 

equal revenues in 1920........ 
Exports, before and after the Great 
War 
Express)» Lhe ((poem)%\, «Sse 2+ «hse 
Extensions checked by restrictions. 


eee eee eee ee tere eee eee ee 


F 


Fair return fixed by Transportation 
Act 
what. constitutes), (2 <5... ss .0 66 
Famous railway builders, passing of 
Fares on New England roads...... 
Farmers’ share of the consumers’ 
price 

Farm lands, increased value, 1870- 
1880 

price of grain drops in 1921.. 


eee reewe eee eee teers ee eore 


eer et eee eee ee ee eee eoeee 


ee eee eee eee eee e eee eere 


86 


192 


66 
65 
191 
433 


66 


90 
193 


191 
376 
28 
28 


261 


243 
358 
297 
217 


326 
389 


358 
442 
284 


382 
199 
352 


68 
315 


230 
392 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


values in 1850 and 1860...... 
values, railways add to....... 
*Fast locomotive of Atlantic City 
hoa ts eri SA eerie SOP ny 
*Fast passenger locomotive, 1893. 
Federal compensation fixed......... 
control attermagh, . Lacan meets 
control declared to be emergency 
legislatvon cnc cee ae 
tailroad administration......... 
*Felton, Samuel M., president, Chi- 
cago Great Western R. R... 
*Samuel’ Me.) at 30 au eee 
S.-M. Ist,,.. builds first coal 
burning locomotive ......... 
Field, Justice Stephen J., defends 
inviolability of private prop- 
CELY 2F S Ailes alters Syeuer suataiel ts ie eet aN 
Fifth Decade, 1870-1880........... 
Financial returns for 1916 and 1923 
for 1912 sandwi922) ere oe 
for first year of Federal con- 
tPOD WEES. aol oad. aoe ae 
for second year of Federal con- 
trol eee eines shehoaneee ean 
for transition year, 1920...... 
Financing American railways always 
Gificiultank. oo omle ouster 
*Fink, Albert, organizer joint traffic 
aSSOCiation Prox ee cserea he ttee 
*Finley, William H., president, Chi- 
cago & North Western...... 
Firemen, average pay of, 1888-1923 
Brotherhood of Locomotive, 
tpresident; of Wincse eee ware 
First all rail route, Philadelphia to 
Pittsburgh cuvette 
*car hong rails: he o-:. ures ere ror 
*coal burning locomotive...... 
decade of American Railways, 
LSS0KI S40 A oeiscneehie cn ere 
*locomotive landed from Chicago 
from schooner, 1848......... 
*first railroad in the United 
Statesiahensciemdosan eee 29, 
regular passenger steamer 
crosses the Atlantic, 1838.... 
*stone on B. & O. railroad.... 
train on Stockton & Darlington 
Ry tuecus sis spe eaia heen toner ote 
Flanges on wheels of early rolling 
STOCK Caw are asic cine tis beets te east eem ements 
Flood, waterfall into Imperial Valley 
Floods and earthquakes overtake the 
TairlwayS yiswvet welelecstsiern aera 
*Florida Keys, railroad over....... ' 


203 
189 
406 
404 
371 


374 
376 


345 


196 


423 
251 


INDEX 


*Ford, Henry, home town Dearborn 


TL SO See nes cet el 2)e ieee 
*Founders, group of, of Baltimore 
WE O)TO seve tn cen RAS Sete ae 
Fourth- Decade, 1860-1870......... 
France, railway, staff and material 
TAD reas NC aera cots io ame oner cl ahs) eheea ewe 
Freight car, average life of........ 
annual replacement of 100,000 
TLECESSAT Veet oie le esl ata 
built compared with increased 
freight ohnandledi., va cvrnsete cus! 
SUED IUSE OL pL OU enw, serieme te « 
Mretenrrchareess iCarly. sete susmtes erie 
congestion in 1917 caused by 
LrekwOreshippitiaisencekseceiscres « 
"NO ctiSy lOGOMOLIViem ta clears arate 
*exchanged mechanically........ 
loadings by MMaAcChineryse «secs « « 
*locomotive, heaviest type of, 

HO SOwp cheese + cjotste leet se ole blake ts > 
*locomotive, typical, 1861....... 
rates, early limitations......... 
tratiical Ol Su LOM LOADS namaste ss) 
traffic of waterways and rail- 
WAViSs ul SOUP LOZ Omer: ate sieleleiel' 
*train on the Quincy railway.... 
“aioe Gorkha (eehpelselss oon eoacah 
*yard, Illinois Central R. R., at 
Ghicagowsewrm ate ee eee creas 
Rvard,) sit Kaneas eCityd. ws te oss 
Fremont, Gen. John C., crosses the 
continent in ihe: 40’s.s..... 
*Fulton, Robert, American inventor 
gO Glenitiotites galas stele Maken ctalatehe so 

G 


Galena & Chicago Union, building 
cut short by panic of 1837.. 
construction resumed in 1847.. 

first) chartered) in 18360. 20.4). . 
*Gateshead model, Trevithick’s...... 
Gaugesmimedleys Otetcs. +s eictcwe es. « 
Gauge, Union Pacific, fixed by Con- 
ITESSW betel itere ohctel srairaigie sao te 
“General,” capture, chase and re- 
CADETS sO Matron esis cits cheers: © 
Confederate locomotive stolen 

by Federal raiders.......... 
*locomotive, chase of........... 
*monument to, Lookout Moun- 
PETAR 5 Alsteto Heeb 0 Ciatao CARO RAEN RRA 
German immigration, 1849......... 
Gold discovered in California...... 
seekers rush to Califcrnia..... 


Good Hope, Cape of, rounded by 
122 AClent mV eENnetiansyre ¢ acme csi 
*Gorman, James E., president, Chi., 
44 Rockmistand™ Se Pacitici eu er. 
147 SP GOuULGS Alayna am chante relents Pou erckepees 
connection with Erie........ 
365 Government loss under Federal con- 
315 CLOMS2 ee moOtit series: mere tte 
Operations endsiewiasss. aes eee 
315 ownership disavowed by Cong- 
TESS AAsSAtEs ta oie a sien, © caserniele 
OLS takes over the railways....... 
396 *“Governor Marcy,’’ locomotive built 
42 Lit PES le wages hs eee chats Bere 
Grain elevators, investment in..... 
3:63 Grand Central Station, New York. 
64 Pthreemperiod sii. tue ae. erie 
327 *New York, cross section of 
285 level Seciern: ste! ahem ee eens 
New York, dimensions......... 
240 *New York, main concourse & 
150 CICK Ets OUNCE’. cn Ramin chores ss 
AS *New York, from 42d Street.... 
358 *New York, lower level con- 
COULSCMr ten tele hams rom Preon cis tas 
161 *New York, seen from neighbor- 
30 A OMSKYVSETADEL cree weciere vies, «sie 
3 Grange, National Patrons of Hus- 
ATUL VewA avatetel Eee aie islets Peaciete ase see 
289 (sranger la wsniire eeees clears ook Soi 
351 laws sustained by the supreme 
Counters te reer deme cars ts 
101 legislation in Iowa, Wisconsin 
20 and other western states.... 
19 Grant, General, on railways during 
THE MWaty Rec cele rides setae ov sterereeelers 
General, first sight of a railroad 
*Gravity railways at Mauch Chunk.. 
72 *GrayvaCarth R.watwiiiteenen.i: 236 %< 
72 *president, Union Pacific R. R.. 
72 Great American Desert, trails 
a marked with headstones..... 
76 Great Northern rushes construction 
to the Pacific in the 80’s.... 
172 president. Ofc .cuewce sat eware ss 
Growth of American railways by 
158 SEATES Ue cecusrauslel state pote lets etetaley sis) < 
of railways, 1830-1860........ 
We “Guaranty period” to Sept. 1, 1920 
154 established oietnldacteiacts sake 
ended September 1, 1920...... 
157 
370 jal 
85 
99 *Fackensack,’”? locomotive . built 
99 aborts £24605 aes e ee oes « 


461 


10 


423 
191 
191 


377 
375 


369 
366 


103 
2129 
.343 
344 


346 
347 


348 
345 


349 
347 


201 
200 


202 
201 
159 

78 

30 
424 
424 
173 


232 
420 


451 
149 


S75 
S16, 


462 


Hadley, Arthur T., discusses effects 
of .Federali@controles- nce ees 

* Harpers Petry ein p1o07 eee tee eee 
*Harriman, Edward H., 1848-1909... 
appears on the railway stage... 
elected chairman of Union Pa- 

cific 

in fight to save Imperial Valley 
railway reorganizer and recon- 


eee reer eee eee eee eee eee 


SULUCE Ot weerey Mattenete aanetenehcll vet otele Ras 
*Harrison, Fairfax, president South- 
ern Railway, System one 

Harte, Bret, on completion of trans- 
Continental sroadsemwer ate sie er 
*Helena ww Vlontanasettiinl G7 giver ele 
*Hell Gate arch over East River... 
*Long Island connection....... 
Hepburn Act gives Commission 
AuUthOLityatoMalravesnn is cinte. 
*Highest bridge in the world, Pecos 
RAVETIsie vin sieve eer eianeteeteeie tere oe 

*Hill, James Jerome, portrait.....-. 
came to United States oppor- 
LUTICL Vales eter che tas, shoyareteratwretsteimane > 

TTL COO Hey he ciekarsne erotic cies leheleperecare 

the “Empire Builder’ of the 
North weStw acs teecikitiensrs es 

Hines, Walker D., succeeds Director 
General McAdoonocn ecatree 
*Holden, Hale, president, Chicago, 


Burlington & Quincy R. R.. 
*Hone, Philip, first president Dela- 
ware & Hudson Canal Co.... 
*Hood, Mt., as seen from Portland.. 
*Horse coal car, early German... 
*locomotive, the ‘‘Cyclopede’’... 
*sixteen train, in Wyoming in 
1870) 
*Hughitt, Marvin, chairman, Chicago 
& Northwestern, in 1924.... 

= Marvitlitl: a Osiris ete steteterehe rete 
Marvin, whose eyes have seen 

70 years of railway service.. 
Human equation in railway service 


eee etre ese ee sere eee er eeose 


*Huntingston, Collis Pio. mass 
projector and organizer contin- 
ental SroadSen. « scrttethererel sets 
“Huntington,” locomotive shipped 
around the Horn in 1864.... 
I 

Illinois -Central, construction begun 
#18511. ssp to ish eeaeene > 


first north and south railway... 
practically parallels Mississippi 

River 
*nresident *Ofs. © + «sens sew ee e 


eoeore rere eet toe e se eiee eo 


353 
269 


269 
304 


353 
424 
185 
218 
386 
385 
294 


198 
354 


137 
137 


354 


194 


416 
415 


356 
438 
175 
174 


161 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


projected (unl 1S3/a5.5 ose ee 
*proposed new passenger station 

Atiet Chicago ss. eee 5 tee 
*dlittos elayOUutencie ce terete 
* ditto, generale plan -enernets cere 
* dittone! Tort eelevatiOtns semen 
“SfatiOnuin loo 7cehetterstereyieeae tenes 


terms, Of lands prante.e -ceeien ae 
Immigration, first wave of........ 
from Ireland and Germany in 


1880- 


Ce 


increase during decade 


1890 


*Imperial Valley flood, five cuts..301- 


irrigated from Colorado River.. 
Savitig the... ceicaenicete colton 
saved at cost of three millions 
towthemrallwayse.-se aeeeiets 

title justified by its crops...... 
Imprisonment, penalty for discrim- 
inatione-a bolished= snes eee ia 
Improvements and _ betterments 
under Federal control...... 
*Inclined. plane at Belmont......... 
tat Match) Chunk ace a onpseetons 

at Philadelphia and Columbia. 38, 

on the Delaware & Hudson... 

*on the portage railway......... 
Income, net, fails to equal reason- 
ablewreturn jie see eee 
*Indians attacking stage coach...... 
impede building of Union Pacific 
*“Tndicator,’ every city had its own 
time einethes O0'S series sae 
Injunction, sweeping, issued against 
lawlessness in strikes........ 
Insurance, death and_ disability, 
engineers 
disability, 
Intercorporate relations of railways, 
1908 


ee 


from 


Interest, advance in rate on new 
borrowing 

paid on funded debt in 1900... 
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887... 
AMENGIMeN te Ole sc. efele ess were sierenere 
*Interstate Commerce Commission, its 
members 

its great responsibility......... 
Investment as reported by the Com- 
MISSION | A1y elo Leeieretonepeaael iene 


per milelin® 19225. ac sie-clsicis inns 


eC ee 


ee 


85 


230 
306 
302 
301 


307 
307 
287 


390 
54 
52 
54 
31 
79 


389 
162 
175 
164 
400 


251 
249 


311 


246 


INDEX 463 


-Yowa, crossed by five trunk lines 
in decade 1860-1870.......... 185 
Drishpimmioration, wl C4le. acceso cette 85 


J 
*Jackson, William J., at twenty..... 425 


*president, Chicago & Eastern 
IN WOISBAR SA oo ote scene ace sieve. seus 426 
Jarrett & Palmer’s Special in 1876.. 221 
iGuinerey, Utere RSV (eS esc nacoD ae 109 
ee Ol tats i) ieeee LOCOMOLLV Cr eerste ote sils 50 
*locomotive built for Camden & 
Arm DOyoUR Vem EOS leresieises els . 49 
TTA SEI.VlCOumnEl eel 4,0 eiatieusiey ait cts sie 51 
Just and reasonable return, failure 
(al (ein ICNbok otiaG.a5 BosoooO 392 


wages, what to be considered... 381 


K 
Kansas City Union Station....... 349 
*station, exterior view...-.....- 350 
*Kenly, John R., president, Atlantic 
(Toasted he cers seleesre sensi cate 426 
Kitchen of modern dining car..... 144 


*Kruttschnitt, Jullus, chairman, 
Southern Pacific Company... 426 

*Kurn, James M., president, St. 
Louis-San Francisco R. R.... 427 


L 


Labor Board, Railroad, awards 
wage increase of $700,000,00. 384 
cuts advance in wages half... 392 
establishment? Ofe sss. «sce oe s 380 
reduces wages by 12 per cent.. 393 
without power to enforce orders 382 
‘Labor, compensation of under Fed- 


STAVECONLLO! paeisictsesnes atalesnen’ 371 
cost of, on early railways...... 61 
COStMMON metalliwa Veer tencttrelle tals. os 323 
OLSAMIZaAtlONSya TalLWay;. serene. ol <i 247 


struggle, culmination of, in 1922 396 
unions, early organized in New 
Fine laricieacir res sreterste. ators tis: 248 


*Lancaster, train passing through, 
SA OMEN CIN a afer s eisversis cteie t.6.'° 91 

Land grant, acres a drug on the 
AATKCEIRa tw Ilea et. se atere.c stele 126 
DELIOG et ee ees estes cee ose ss 123 
terms of, to Illinois Central... 120 
ACTESHCOVELE UM DY wiaieraie ele) everetels s.0 124 
PENELAlCALUITES seiemrretere + etarevels 125 


hastened sale of public lands... 126 
not very profitable to the rail- 
WAY SY so eretePabeiclere sactavebete niet ahhh s 127 





responded to popular demands 124 
Valter OFF. s1cu sei cteieas aces eo 126 
Land value in St. Paul in 1849.... 136 

Lane, Franklin K., on adequate re- 
turn for railway investors... 325 


elec, Williame Gaeats tweaty.. ona 437 
: *president, Brotherhood of 
Drainmensene pee ee 437 


Legislation, restrictive effects of.... 329 
Leiper tramway, earliest railway in 


Patents glstncro tts AL ee AA latede 30 
Letter postage, San Francisco to 
Atlantic coast, 40° cents in 
tIVE RA OUSin ver ones cp exe sate ahctecasers oe 100 
*Level, taking a, on the Erie...... 90 
Limit of railway construction in 
LS GOI nee ant se ee ee ots 122 
*Lincoln, Abraham, approves location 
OfeUnionmeaciicassaneres ners 166 
*autograph, approving Union 
Paciiceslocationar.. demesne as te LOO 
favored lands grants. qe bacer yy 
MAugULAateds it el BG) aeiweecee cote 147 


in Rock Island bridge case.... 128 
on railways and waterways.... 127 


Rilinkeancds pinmcoppletytcerts cma 236 
Liverpool & Manchester Ry. adopts 
SteamuepOW.CLRi iret crete tale creer 24 
*Loading and unloading by gravity.. 253 
*Lock at Lockport on Erié.......... 13 
“Locomotion? Nog4) asi rebuilt a0 25 


first locomotive in actual service 23 
*Locomotive and crew at Promontory 


11M BOD Hers he te eicvsrsichcveeve lee auete 174 
tarticulated ms Wallet 1919 s,m ase. 372 
*articulated type, 1916, weight 

SOOLS5 OM IDS Se ache came taka she bare 358 
*at Centennial Exposition, 1876 224 
Atlantic’ type OOO sets tecns pee 296 
* Baldwin inl GO lair seis 149, 151 
*Baldwin, fast passenger, of 1848 95 
*Baltimore & Ohio, 1904....... 296 
*built for Hudson River R. R. 

INE 1 SOO yacwe rae tne ches Vote tokere 135 
* Gamer) wae heav.yae | Oiler are 325 
C. FP. Huntington, shipped 

ALOuNCmtien Elo fiir weirs 161 
*“Conness,”’ transported around 

Capeniorey s1S05iveanes ease 171 
*“Consolidation’” type, heavy, 

fre1ah teeet Ol Oiaverenetacreneiererererrces 314 
*“Decapod’ type, 1906):..52..121- 299. 
Gevelopmenity Ofientan cele enelsielcy ere 104 


*development of, 1837 to 1918.. 378 
demonstrates superiority to 
HO TSEW OTe srewicte siete lamas tere ars 35 





464 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 
*designer’s model of Hudson *Locomotives, heaviest type of 
Rivets €ngine. sick conch tone 136 Ere git ed GSOe werkt ee eke aa 
*earliest and latest English..... a BS TOL: BOS ys steers ect aterere meee ats 259 
**“Falcon,’’ on inspection tour of For they perlodesus<asc. oe 
Central BP acinomae. eric: tere 169 *1876 and modern compared... 294 
*fast passenger in 1893......... 257 *smallest and largest in P. & R. 
*first and modern compared.... 5 SELVICe sine ate aden arene ee 326 
*first class passenger in 1875....195 Long and short haul, discussion of 241 
*first)coal-burning. 18552... 1 123 principles discussed by Commis- 
*first English in AAmerica...... 34 SICH 0).y chs <b ster eat dace eee 258 
firstin actual service... 4... 21 regulation depends on_ partic- 
*first to reach St. Paul by boat ilapycifcumstancesaan ieee 258 
in S60 vatidiamoderns semen s- 184 *Long Island, Hell Gate Cut-off..... 385 
*flexible beam truck of 1842, re- Longest railway under construction 
modelled in 1865............ 171 Itt 283.0 k ae were ee cae eee 37 
*four hundred ton A. T. & S. F., *Lookout Mountain, ‘“‘General’? mon- 
1.92 i oye reel ee do dneepae ante tors (a eet Rete ok 505 UTMETIE: (ON) ss: sien oneaictere een eae 157 
four hundred ton electric...... 382 “Loree, Lic F. at: twenty ..ce urea 428 
*freight and passenger, 1860 *president, Delaware & Hudson, 
a Fal Rig Stee aeoeeeetoneee Rete 148, 152, 216 UD Dawes she Sas athe bia al Cate has 
*“General” seized by Union *Los Angeles had no railways in 
taiders < WHR Lecce ae tote 154 TS60:s . BARGiee cre ereiyaa cree 233 
*Geo. Stephenson’s early patent. 22 *in 51870 and mow.) ack ee ene 192 
*German, steam, turbine....... 414 Loss, government, on first year’s 
*“Governor Marcy,” built in Operations 4, neeseeure lense ic, ee 
18515: 2 Se Ie a ae 103 on two years’ operation...... 374 
*heaviest type of passenger, 1889 241 Louisville & Nashville chartered in 
sheave treights rd OlGoers scenic ts 366 VSS OMe Ae ive ols ee meets Baa Gs 
*Lehigh Valley, heaviest of 1875 224 Presidents Ole ee een seater eae 429 
inl ae Wonks) ant Gili sepa ene AY RB} Lovett, Robert S., head of Divi- 
*Mikado! type) L920 ce wele eats 3137 sion of Capital Expenditures 363 
“Missouri Pacific, 1902/5. 5 tes we. 287 *chairman, Union Pacific System 427 
Moguliwot ul Co2 nee sisereie ners e200 SLucin} ctit-Offc os ose eee es 284 
*Mountain type, heavy passenger, Luggage, English name for baggage 278 
LOZ Zig cee Nae An edete socal Ore Rettetodal alte 388 
*“Nashville” that drew Lincoln’s M 
funeral trains ose. sane . 167 
BING, DOO? CASE chais abet ed eee ie ba 254 McAdoo, Wm. G., appointed Di- 
*“Novelty,” rival of the “Rocket” 26 rector, Géneraloiiy veces cee 367 
of L903! hehetcllessteretercies beeen eee 287 Director general, resigns.... 373 
*oil burner, heavy freight serv- McAdoo’s “Advisory Cabinet”..... 368 
: AGE, LOZZ IS fe ln veroia rye ie wiajais wre ele 383 McChord, Commissioner, on the per- 
passenger of 1896, one of the sonal equationsn.sesnecteene 213 
fastest. ever) sbuiltsace. sche: 263 Mail. fret Pe key? i] ‘ 
4 a Bey. ai rst carrie y railways in 
representative Baldwin in 1839 63 1837 ae : 100 
pontine Romy peN ore! Wicaay eae 238 *train, fast) at 6Omhiles an hour’ 293 
*specifications for early B. & O. 45 ne fg eg: 
*stages of, drawn to scale, 1837 Mann “Boudoir car’ tried on East- 
fo 1923 Reece aan ea Maa Gee 378 GTi Leads: ee Caco eae ae 
“transporting a, by horsesin 1842 93 Mann-Elkins Act strengthens power 
*Trevithick’s first model........ 21 of Commission over rates... 295 
*twelve wheel tender.......... 373 *Mapother, W. L., president, Louis- 
Hype Ot. A SIOa es Cee eee 225 ville & Nashville....... eoaire 429 
*Virginian Ry., 1918, weight *Maps, railway, 1830, 1840, 1850, 
OR9.O00FUbSic Fe. vie ailtre wrele erect 366 18600 2075 han ieee se @ eres atte 149 
*with Central Pacific train, 1868 169 *“Marcy Governor,” locomotive, 1851 103 





INDEX 465: 
*Markham, Chas. H., at twenty.... 428 *Mogul locomotive, 1892............ 255 
*president, Illinois Central R. R., *Mohawk & Hudson, first locomotive, 
ROP SE Me erstve aes acc aias t setris eae 428 Demy att CHALOM tain. cates 51 
Martinsburg, riots, 1877)... 2c... 5. 223 Monumental stations, building of... 331 
Massachusetts roads, capital of, in *Morse, Samuel F. B., inventor... 82 
LSA Sie ratee ialo sieisekes Seles stele are 410 files caveat for electrical instru- 
state regulation of, 1869...... 197 TNE DL Gey ecers nee ee nn 5. Son hes 82 
Mauch Chunk, gravity railway at... 30 *Moseley, Edward A., first secretary 
SITIC tle deaplatlemiatiere eremt-uccusle oiets 52 GLMCOMTINISETOU es Seyret acd «5 8 5 243 
Mayer, Brantz, trip across the Alle- *Motor car, Baldwin, steam, 1877.. 200 
@USTNICS 211s 1S ovis ns « seis ne ees = 105 Mountainy tunmeling. sires tne ess es 273 
*Mechanical dumper at Ashtabula Munson, Judge, 50 days’ trip, St. 
GOCKSia Berets eres Nite hion sures: . 328 Louis to Ft. Benton, 1865.. 162 
FatCleveland VdOCkKSa = geld cr sisieiete 324 
Meyer, Prof. B. H., assists in com- N 
MeTCialwvalMatlOMms. <eyee srs «/ 289 Newcomen, Thomas, original inven- 
Meyers, assists in intercorporate tor of steam engine ...... 17 
TOPOL Gate, s.0) siete Sdtentiscs) Slice ee 290 model engine ..cccscccecseess 17 
*Michigan Central train in Dearborn, New England roads, early history 67 
1857 ee eee e toe eer seer eeeeesee 121 New York and Boston all rail con- 
Michigan railways, early, what they MeClOn ine 1848 eee. 70 
cost the state.......+-+.+- . 73 New York’s belated start ......... 61 
sells state roads at a loss in 1844 72 New York & Harlem Ry., chartered 
tries state ownership in 1837... 72 ay cane OUA naan omer ke i 62 
Migration to the west.........+.. 58 CAsth OL ap VEO PLEA Se 76 
Mileage and population............ 97 New York, early depots in ...... 344 
and population in; 1860. <<. 119, 148 HTP ESS) ee ste ele 62, 390, 391 
AandetracksSeitin LOCO. ciel sett 267 *in 1924, from an airplane 390, 391 
at the close of the 19th century 284 to Albany direct, 1851....... 6a 
built between 1870 and 1880.... 227 to San Francisco in 80 hours, 
built between 1880 and 1890.... 229 SiomMNiNutegnr waxes we eda tin 221 
by states, 1840..........-+0.. 74 New York Central, composed of 
increase, 1860-1870....... eee GS many links, 1853 .......... 64 
decrease in’ 1916-1920......... 377 FAreRIeOE COL bre ee a ee oe 417 
expansion during Eighth Decade 284 New York Central & Hudson River 
Miller, Justice, finding in Credit *R. R. opened to Buffalo, 1853 112 
Mobiliter® cases ce. «c/s. 2.010102 #10 183 *New York, Chicago & St. Louis 
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. R. R., Chairman of......... 434 
Marie Ry., President of.... 430 *New York, Grand Central Station 
*Mississippi River, bridge of 1855 at—suburban concourse...... 349 
established rights of  rail- *New York, New Haven & Hartford 
Ways Men Ginetta stints «ate © + she 128 R. R., Chairman of ........ 421 
*present steel structure ..... 129° *Niagara, bridging ...........2.005 130 
*Mississippi River, early raft on... 10  *Night travel before the days of 
how trunk lines reached the.. 117 SLEEPERS: pirster lew tae ty shat eh 105 
limit of railway construction Ninth Decade, 1910-1920........... 324 
BEE LOOU eins se ale sini oie ols 8:2 Hes 98 » *¢No,. 4,” “Locomotion, first... 5).)... 23 
yal We), UNS HK Gay Hu ao Gud Beconmon 117 *Norris, Wm., freight engine ..... 64 
traffic rendered obsolete by Norris locomotive ascends Schuykill 
Tall Way. sme ostele lose wictes s.aial= 122 inclined! planes % « cca. sien 61 
transportation on ....+....+.- 16 Northern Pacific begun in 1870... 218 
Va ey.’ fers (PAA iT ie steele, «ee 116 goes under in 1873 and recov- 
Missouri, Kansas & Texas line, pres- ELS, (is 1S ZS! staan ees enters 218 
THEN ER Oferta ielese-ctedaie eiaveleerayens 430 * Chairman wore LOZ omy caslate senate 421 
Missouri Pacific Ry., President *“Novelty,” the rival of Stephen- 
OLB SEAT De Fore Slee borer aan chan otis 419 Son’sn\c Rockets o weictas eltiessyeere 26 


466 


O 


Officials recruited from the ranks.. 
*Ogden, Wm. B., Father of western 


TAL WAYS tries ahereverste ci cueiee ose ots 
president of many western rail- 
Wil MICOM PANIES Mss leleiieleteiste siete 
Ohio, flood 2085491 Soci cn se reap es 
ba jo ef Ls di OE aoe Oo oon 
estimate of life and property 
VOSS i aieis cielo ts ehateic siekerssetcveds 309, 


*railways after it had gone .... 
*“Old Ironsides,” first Baldwin lo- 


frei Gowide So onc vom AO 

Baldwin’s first locomotive 
*Omaha in the 60’s, without railways 
ASLTECU CATE ML OUAY Mere meusierech ares ee 
SStreety 11) whos Sumeesieis Crees eueisiecseke 
*trestles across valley near South 
Origa hae oehiteeereisretets crcis es 
Operating ratio before and after 
themGreatwnyVate cts. crit 
Operating revenues, formula for 
UKE aba Beasccscosascc 
Operations, railway, three decades 
ory AUR EI oteadoso do eras 


Opportunity, railway door of 
*Ore docks, Great Northern at Du- 
luth 
*“Oregon or bust’ prairie schooner 
*Original Pullman car, costume party 
OLPETIOM SIT Mec erste saerors 
Over-construction, 1865-1893 
Overland travel in the 60’s, perils 
of 
Ownership of American railways... 
*Ox-cart, early 


eee eee eee eee te ore eee sees 


Pacific routes, battle of the five.. 
*Packet boat on Delaware & Hudson 


Canal ewer ces oe als sie sstatete's 3 
Pannier mica Zins actos Bay renetera asec: s ; 
Ofml Godman del Sod islslaeiteittes« 

Olin 1873 hee Serer c rte ohctorelereretartens. 5 

of 1873 due to overbuilding rail- 
WAYS LSOS*USI/G! wertepel stereo elon ere 


of 1893 paralyzed railway traffic 


of 1907, effect on rolling stock 
of 1907, effects last for years 
*Passenger car, 1844 .......eeeeee- 
MiNteTIOTE OF) “LOO. speletcierrsrs => 
“onthe. Quincy. Ry. se tsesss = 
wid Byer dite (On Mensano Oo OO COC 
“early S-wheel-%.0-2) costes nes 
*on Pennsylvania’s Portage 


eee ereoee ert eoeree® 


Road, 1835 


414 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN -KAlLLWAYS 


*steel 190702 hens eee ter 
*Passenger coaches, 1880-1905 
* Passenger engine, Schenectady 
WOEKS, Ws) S60) ses select creators 
fare, two-cent a mile legisla- 
tid: is SO aes ne ee eens 
*locomotive;sitaste s: see sens 263, 
+locomotiviesstast) ml Ooo mee emuetetens 
*locomotive, first class, of the 
LOPS eee ete eee ite eee notes 
*‘ocomotive, heaviest of its 
type. Bald witttecaeeeceeeare 
*locomotive, representative, 1886, 
Bald wintseciace Oooo ers cae othe 
tates, commissioner B. H. 


Meyer on, in Wisconsin case 


trates, reduced between 1877 

and: 61887 98 .co eee eer 
*station, first in New York.... 
stations, difficulties attending 

location i. Mes oa eile Sete en ena 
traffic affected by motor compe- 

TILTOT Recs oe ee etree rete 
trafic lags it L922 mee eee 
train’ Of [860M sae oer een 
*ticket by steamer, rail and 


canal, New York to Buffalo 

Pay, average of, conductors, 1888- 
ODS Ye kale cas abovetene tetas oe hoe crbete 

of, engineers, 1888-1923 

of, trainmen, 1888-1923 
Pay roll in 1919 advances 90 per 
cent over 1916 
increase, 1897-1907 
increased $600,000,000 by Labor 
Board 

in Parkersburg shops in 1830... 
*Peekskill Landing on the Hudson 


eeevee 


eee eee eee eece 


ee 


coe reese eee ese eee eos oe 


19 *1337 Wiese oe, one eee 
Penalty under the Elkins Act 
Changed seve ateiiersaicmerieteie 
*Pennington, Edmund, chairman, 
Minneapolis, St. Paul & S. 

S¥o Maries ®./srosisusrecnockers elemhe 
Pennsylvania R. R., how it finally 
reached Chicago and _ St. 
LGUs ersce crete ote sadcces Srotesere a srote 

how sit goteite Charlee o.c ct 
opens all-rail line to Pittsburgh 
VSS 4 crests susie aerators Sle wre pistes 


early history and first cost ... 


loses $3,019,000 in Ohio flood 
original cost. to state reim- 

bursed by company ....... 
* president! Of rec seteteste stele atecatore 


several stations of, in Phila- 


240 


313 


244 
344 


266 
405 
405 
SE) 

66 
251 
251 
251 


371 
297 


384 
61 


69 


287 
430 
117 
iS 
114 
114 
310 


115 
416 


SCA al tees Watalet a afeie Var Rises ie 

I Newarr orks statlonle Ofs este asters 
dimensions of New York sta- 
TLOMe aroiertterel epost wie euteeetss so 

R. R. tracks raided and cap- 
tured during the war ...... 
*Pennsylvania’s New York station, 
Maiwewaltinge TOOM mies... 
*Seventh Ave. facade ......... 
PUPAL ICONCOULSE Wmaeteiere sie otete:snae 
Pennsylvania, state sells its railway 
tomeleritinn Re Rot COwercsteiate 

*Pere Marquette, president of...... 
Philadelphia & Reading, cost of in 
LSA CHM ctora cleaheleve sa sletely cence 
DEESIGENT MOL ee ctcee cielo ticket ore ees 
‘Philadelphia, different passenger 
StAtlGHS MA Cea so setae wie ae 
Philadelphia, Germantown & Norris- 
town orders ‘Old Ironsides” 
‘Piermont on the Hudson ........ 
“Pioneer,” first locomotive landed 
ine Chicago, 11h 1848) ose. s 96, 
‘“Pioneer,” first Pullman sleeping 
CALM Toten atete oh ce slorhane ieee cnet 
Pittsburgh, by flatboat to New Or- 
Mea i's Pee aarcscerlnievers are cians testo tes, 
Tatlwavye TlOts ehOL7 tae cc eszelsierers 
reached by rail and portage 


road in 1850 
visited by Washington in 1753 


| 


*Plains, crossing the, in the 50’s... 
Plants tatlway,. 1890-1900) “2... < 
* Point mote ROCKS aml 6 Si/meccroletes Seaver 
Poland Committee, findings of, in 

Credit Mobilier case ...... 
* Pole Sdrag cI AGA: |, ve «avers wistaiere css 
Poor, on density of population nec- 

ESSALVIMtOMTallWa VS ateicie1ce 
Poor’s Manual, estimate of railway 

COSts 1s 13.00 metals sloteree tiorais, © oe 


Population and railways, 1830-1840 


*Population center of 1790-1910... 
density necessary to successful 


GALWAY Sabon) tare eisrelis chsle oes = leves'e 
growth of, 1870-1880 ........ 
growth of, 1880-1890 ......... 
ArVen tiem .0; Gare retele ters sispeiots ssc 3° 

Portage incline, canal boat hauled 
EPO he cot See ace lta Pe ar aa 
*Portland, Oregon, in 1867 ....... 
ed ris ODA ee rctepetue ererractetetereteioiier es te) oe 
*Postal car, all steel, exterior...... 
*alleesteels  intertOn ne siereciies-«s <1 


*tablet commemorating first 


INDEX 


Postage on letters, San Francisco to 


ING Wan Ona 84.9 tic ate ke ante 
FALCSMOL MLO Oeste roc: caterer merce 
*Potomac, the, from Jefferson’s Rock 
BL Merete erciccee acte wreteicse natenes 
Potter law, enacted in Wisconsin. . 
Pe raliiem SCHOONER Mel Oo Uiee. ee <tecacieres 
Ole iNemns 0 Saratiemer et crtystae eas ene 


*Prairie section, Union Pacific 
Priestley, Sir Neville, official report 
on American railways ...... 
Priority orders, abuse of caused 
confusion and delay 
Private control, railways 
DACK CO mr excrete sete teres bottles tere 
operation restores efficient op- 
CLALION Rerrastere aioe coke Sie ere 
Progress of railway operation in 
TSA Otieces oirere oooregerotevenmsremvets, rote 
of railways, three decades of.. 
of railway mileage, 1860 ...... 
Prominent men involved in Credit 
IMobiliergees nec: Iooiondemonabe 
Promontory Point, driving last spike 
at, May 10, 1869: 
Pratlsemeet att O9 mer. as siclere cere 
Public lands in the 50’s 
VALCO fem SO (asetaeestate etevereterche oe 
*Pullman, Geo. M., portrait 
*last portrait 
CALECETITOL Miocis cists veusiwae everce get 
first remodels sleeping cars... 
*present president 
palace car 
Palace Car 
rated 
sleeping car, coming of 
*sleeping car, latest, with draw- 
ings 
*sleeping car, process of making 
up berths 
sleeping cars, first through train 
of, crosses continent 
*kitchen, modern 
*interior early dining car 
*interior early sleeper 
int eLLOL smi Gel eLIimcsie teeter ele teioters 
*interior, modern dining car.. 
*sleeper ready for night 
Pullman surcharge of fifty per cent 
“Pusher” the cause of labor riots.. 


Q 


an early gravity 


ee eee eee 


turned 


eoee se ea re 
ee 


ee eer ee eet eeeseeee 


Co., first incorpo- 


oc eeece 
ebi6 s' W 50) 6.0 a. 0 0/0; » ee 6 6 a).8,.0 8 lee 
eo ee ere ees essere e ese 
ee eeeeoe 
eee es eee erene 


eoceevee 


ee seeeee 


Quincy railway, 


road 
COStR OLE sco co ems we wetetcrae eels 


468 


R 


*Raft, early on the Mississippi .... 
*Ragan, L. W., block tower named 


ATLOTE Pechaie chs ein the el oreetehs sarees 

Rail chairs, wrought iron ........ 
Railroad Labor Board, how con- 
Sti bite ese ak odetersus  otsheree ots tale 
Railroads’ War Board, composition 
OD ei ised ans aitve ee trevevele es maa 
FESIONS Io Vee ere iicteass 4. code mlvia nantes 
SRatlseande thaciksaml Gol cuales eter ere 
Coste or ins the 407s. Weeicu ere ee 
early steel, cost of, 1867 and 
URES altel oars emeueteomelaNet sole cane 

early weight and cost of...... 
PAGSt MCAT’ Ol) laters clots tera tar helalolors : 


first steel, imported in the 50’s 
first steel rolled in America in 


DROS ee cate eee cite teen caer: 

first T, rolled in United States 

TTMGHE BAS) y-cee eve Nicere oe sichain elieletere es = 
iron, imported from England, 
Costy SoUMpetet One ta etapere kets 
ADEMNITIVE | WOOGED Wie «peieies>ielvielale 
*shown in an old cut, 1550.... 
*Railway. builders, passing of...... 
building in 1850-1860 probably 
SaAVeGatHe nie tl O1is siverede retehsl sis 


companies chartered in 1840.. 
companies differ on terms of 


Strike settlement :.......... 
companies of the early 30's... 
efficiency restored in 1923..... G 
Mirai eSenVviCe marine tie eae tane 6 
mileage and population in de- 

Cages) 1830-40 iaecrsietatste Nereis 


mileage and population in 1850 
mileage increases 70 per cent, 


TS SOLES Oe csi, «lnctoretarenebeievenate 
mileage by (State, LS 40 sci elec 
mileage relative to population 
plantiin Glo OO ee oe siecle rclepstensnay ate 

Railways all east of the Missis- 

SiPpi aint, S50, elec s emetcnelsiers 
and population, 1850-1860 .... 
of the Confederacy .......... 
past the experiment stage by 

1850 @ @ 6,66 © Se eee. 6,06, 0) eleleile velo 
teach every state in the Un- 

LOM a DY SS Olga tsms sy otes systole ex onenens 


share of the consumer’s price .. 
to be returned in as good repair 
as when taken over 
torn up, destroyed and repaired 
1861-1865 


eovedeorn 


10 


384 
57 


380 


362 
368 

56 
101 


162 
102 
1 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN KAILWAYS 


Rainhill trials of locomotives ..... 
Randolph, Epes, engineer directing 
rescue of Imperial Valley.. 


Rate advance discounted by Labor 


Board) Vawarda pict otto 

and fare increases in 1920.... 
increase under Transportation 
ANGE > le eke, dra toe eter care een eee 
Rates, American freight, lowest in 
the! world yk weit ee 


and wages advanced by Director 
General 


eee tae eee eee ees eeoere 


order 


Ce ee 


authority toenameetacs cece 
principles underlying 
fixing of, discussed by Chair- 


man Cooley 


influenced by public considera- 
tions 

‘Gust and reasonable’? become 
the: "rules jhisciyserrte delecretie 

‘Gust and reasonable,” 
they must produce 

of 1920 reduced by Commission 

in 1922 

on early railways 
revision of by Commission ad- 
vocated by President Roose- 

velt 

Ratio of pay roll to revenues...... 
operating, before the Great War 
Rea, Samuel, president, Pennsyl- 
vania R. R. 

*in 1877 
*portrait 
Reading railroad, cost of in 1848.. 
Reagan, Representative, father of 
Commerces Actin siercwier aire 
Reasonable return cut in half...... 
Rebates, word derived from French 
rabattre 
“Recapture clause” 
Act 
Receipts, average freight and pas- 
senger, 1900-1910 

PeL ton mile wees cate were sa 

per ton mile, 1864 
average, reach low level in 1900 

per ton mile reach low level in 
1917s See ae a hene Ores hiters 
Receivers, in the hands of, 1874- 
187 Agha y oko Geteeueictsuere ene 


ere ese eee eee ee seer eee 


eee eet eee 
cc eee eee eee eee see ee 


Ce Cy 


ec eee eee e eee ete 
eoeee eee eee eee tee eae & 


eco ecseer eee eee reese ee ee 


of Commerce 


eevee reese ee eevee eee eeeoe ® 
eeseeeeece 


ee ee eee eseoe 


304 


389 
388 


388 
243 
370 
370 


294 
255 


255 
257 


199 
382 


397 
42 


288 
393 
3/26 


416 
416 
417 
410 


242 
392 


287 
383 
329 
406 
2164 
285 


362 


Receiverships, 1893-1896 .......... 
(150) between 1873 and 1880.. 

of important roads in 1893- 
1896. 
process under 
Receivership of Santa Fe, an ex- 
ample 
Recession 
1921 


in railway revenues in 


eo eer eee eer see eoee st toe e 


pal WRSYAGS Areata eae Remeron aun CoA 
Reduction in freight rates, 1877.. 
in number of employes in 1921 
Regional directors, seven appointed 
Regulate Commerce, Act to, passed 
in 1887 
Regulation becomes more stringent 
conflicting views regarding.... 
difficulties of described by Judge 
Cooley 
early state 
effect on construction......... 
national, how brought about.. 
of railways looms up 
of railways result of long agi- 
tation 
Results, operating, 1920 and 1921.. 
operating, first year of Federal 
control 


eee ee sees eres eerene 


oo ese ree eee eee soe er eee 


Return on investment in 1911..... 
on invested capital 
reasonable 

Revenues and expenses, 1920)...... 
first six months of Federal con- 

trol 
second year of Federal control 

*-Revenues dropped $300,000,000 in 

1907 
Revival of business in 1922....... 
Revolving funds amounting to a bil- 
lion and a quarter inade- 
quate 

Rights of way of canals utilized for 

railways 

Riots, railway, of 1877 <::.....%.. 
losses caused by, 1877......... 

*Ripley, Edward Payson, portrait.. 
chosen president of Santa Fe 

in 1895 
“Grand Old Man” of the Santa 

Fe 

River navigation, dangers of in 1838 
*Roadbcd. and track, Albany to 
Schenectady, 1837 ....-.e+0- 


ee eee eer eee ee eweseane eee 


 ) 


ee eee rer eeee ee eee ee 


eoeoeeeaeeer cere eoereesee 


iNDEX 


264 
219 


264 
264 


265 


392 


221 
243 
293 


368 


240 
283 
324 


261 
196 
262 
239 
240 


239 
393 


371 
328 


. 268 


327 
376 


370 
374 


297 
403 


372 


*Robertson, D. L., president, Lo- 
comotive Firemen’s Brother- 
MOOGA Tart Selene tccee ee eee 


Robinson, W. D., first grand chief 


Bro’hood Locomotive Engi- 

TICELS Peetctdoepese Sale cee deine hs > 
*“Rocket,” first practical locomotive 
GinrensStonGmotayeecd. satires 6 
*Rogers’ locomotive, 1848 .......... 


locomotive, type of the 80's... 


Rolling stock built in 1919, 1920, 
LOD URS yerercrck ovetanets. fc ote leis cee s 

effect of panic of 1907 on.... 

Af gnl COO gas atereetoiele sle'besiore Soeishe’s 

110g) | DOO MEW de teicleneis spene atthe clat overe yes 
inadequate provision under Fed- 
etalk CONETOME cams, carscrets st cheeuss 


increase in power and capacity 
none ordered by Director Gen- 
CLAlMELINES peers «etc alate, chorale s 
Roosevelt, President, favors fixing 
rates by Commission 
Routes, five, from _ coast 
Mississippi Valley 


toward 


S 

“Safiety First’? campaign inaugu- 
rated Sisrets 
Safety devices vais: ssi, s\e ole, 9.50 viele welt 
eSatlsmon etalnecan 
eS eOuis MU not otatlOMe osejs siecle 
*orandy ball ayetecel eters Bike swatcjetenes 
*track layout 
*train shed 
Paul, first locomotive to reach, 
1860 

in 1850| had no railways...... 
sees visions in 1853 
when it was a frontier city.... 
*Union Station, front elevation 
*track layout 
*main concourse 
*progress of work on 
Salton Sink, dumping millions into. 
overflowed by Colorado River.. 
Sanborn, Prof. John Bell, on land 


eoeeoeeeeeee sees eee . 


oor etree e eee eee e ears 


*St. 


ee eeeer eerste eos eee eee ® 
oe eee eee ee 
eeeve recess e eee sen 


eeeeeeteoe se eee 


QTANTS wc ececcceeccsccceces 
*“Sandusky”’, locomotive, 1837..... 
San Francisco, earthquake and fire 

Mine. 1S48 4 Soden ¢ Weare s, aislecatpia oisss 
Sante Fe, The, reaches Chicago... 
*type locomotive, heaviest 
freight, el OOo: cate Winte) cote etghe os 


*“Savannah,” the first steamship. to 
cross the Atlantic, 1819 


469 


437 


249 
24 
24 

100 

216 


374 
313 
247 
268 


372 
285 


374 
288 


97 


212 
212 

36 
276 
279 
277 
278 


184 
134 
134 
304 
401 
400 
403 
402 
304 
301 


127 
62 
299 
99 
233 


288 


27 


470 


*Schaff, Charles E., president, Mis- 
souri-Kansas-Texas Lines.... 

*Scott, Thomas A., portrait ...148, 
assistant Secrctary of War.... 
colonel in United States Volun- 
teers 
services during Civil War..... 
Seaboard Air Line, descendant of 
Seaboard & Roanoke R. R... 

PLESIA NLL O Liars ehereisiersictererelenersnocsts 
*Seattle, freight yards in 1924...... 
*in 1878 


eooees eee se steerer ese see see 


*water front in 1880 
Second Decade, 1840-1850! 
Securities, railway, in hands 

the public in 1908 
Semaphore signal erected in 1841.. 
Seniority rights involved in settle- 

ment of 1922 strikes 
restoration of declined by two- 
thirds of roads 
Settlement of America at first re- 
stricted 

of the West by the railways 
saved the Union 
per cent railway bonds sold 
at $90: 
Seventh Decade, 1890-1900: 
Share, railway, in consumers’ price 
*Sheppard, Lucius E., president, 

Order Railway Conductors.. 
Shopmen, quarter of a million lay 

down their tools 

strike of 1922 

wages cut by Labor Board ... 
Shortage, car, 1917 
Signals, system of, on Hudson River 

Ry. in 1862 
Sixth Decade, 1880-1890 
Sleeping cars, cost of first construc- 

LION Mere chee Chowee areieyse remeileperese te 

first on Cumberland Valley 
RERR Accs tere eradelocsicharennerencas 

*interior of modern ........... 

justify their high cost 

need of .. 
2S mit baweAcw Ul mecielarare cnr terete Bareteiere ase 

Fini cape Ole NOse 999 telesleleieeleliers 

*Memorial Bridge 
*Smith, Milton H., late president, 

Louisville & Nashville 
South, five-foot gauge of railways 

OLA sss 
* Snows DIOW.s 0. curetcivieoes Linde Pee fe oe 
*Snowa plow,  LOtalyiccistisieteuearrertcn 


eeereeereos 


eoceeeoere 


Seve:: 


eeceeeoee 


eevee seve 


eoeoesceeoe eee eeee 


eoceeereeceecee ees 


ee eee cee eee eeee 


eeoeeer sees 


coeeoseeeeeeeese eee 


eoeeeeoeeeee 


430 
tol 
148 


152 
151 


276 
433 
234 
232 
233 
234 

82 


159 
239 
238 


HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 


South, population of in 1860...... 
*Southern engine in the 60’s....... 
Southern lines consisted of consoli- 
dations or minor linkshece 

Cost, Of, weatlyp gre. cs, soto eyes 
Feorganization vOLy ws. jetele stele 
operate 20,000 miles ......... 
Southern Pacific Ry., evolution of 
*chairman’ of Boardvof 344-2029 
rescue work at San Francisco.. 
*DTESIdenitaiO Luis aces ee eee 
spends millions to save Imperial 
Valley -Caviisicas. ester ere 
Southern Ry. absorbs scores of 
pioneer sroOaGSmeee eee 
*president 10ft aoc terete eee 


Southern railways before the war. 
Southern states, four trunk lines of 
Spearman, Frank H., describes re- 
habilitation of the Union 
PAacihiG: occ scc sted ee ete eal eee 
Speculation, era of 
in railways and land coincident 
Speed, No. 999 attained a, of 112.5 
miles wan). HOUf Wercsrrestee aie 

of first train 

on. early stage coaches ........ 
railway, in the 60’s 
*Sproule, William, president, 
ern Pacific Co. 
*Stage coach, California in 1865... 
first between New York and 
Boston 

*in pre-railway days 
site of, ee to Edinbareh 


eo eee eee eee eee 


ee eeeeo ee eee eeee 


Sarr 


Standard bats adoption hastened 
by Pullman cars 
*Standard time indicator in the 60’s 


local time before the days of.. 
*Starnucca, | Viaductwotertuem .rsaier 
State of the Union in 1830 ....... 
State owned railways, French 
economist on, 1877.......... 
Ownership tried by Michigan, 
NBR Y! | Remco Gisttove tate ayaskete Craroness 
tailways, first undertaken in 
IPennsylvaniagetie toc tents et 
Tegulation in Massachusetts... 
regulation, agitation for spread 
States, seven build railways...... 
without railways in 1850 ..... 
Stations, building of great ....... 
Statistics, ‘‘good servants but poor 
TNASLETS/ yes che eieteiete es creat: are 


require discreet interpretation. 


235 
426 
299 
431 


306 


274 
424 
148 
274 


227 


72 


38 
196 
201 
100 

98 
331 


247 
247 








INDEX 47] 
*Steamboat, first,: 1802 ........5...- 19 *Suspension bridge, first over Niag- 
*Steam engine, Watt’s development ATAU NTVC La uct occcstece cure Vehscahe. er 131 
(he i: eer ase eee re Tot eis denana -DTiGCee waited < sleeve 153 
power, coming of ..........-. 16) 42 Switchinowhumpnss.cs as sean seo. 261 
power, its discovery and devel- T 
OPMENT. dc vas a 6 os eect miaieins 16 ; 
*Steel passenger coach, heavy, 1907 298 Taft, President, vetoes bill abolish- 
rails, cost and production before aes: Commerce (OUTE Mesie sist 320 
RTO Nee SiR stadt eee 162 Tariffs, publication of............. 285 
rails first rolled at Chicago, *Taussig, J. E., president, Wabash 
1865 Pe eee aie ey cere cretste 162 Ry. ehelevelietel(e sere (els) s/o ais ieidie 6 o0 « 432 
Stephenson, George, early experi- Taxes, ad valorem, by states, in 
ments and patents bes Se eS 21 1904 = aia atphahel we eilels\aiisse.b belles e 290 
*first practical locomotive..... 22 railway, increase 232 per cent 
*FrOntispiECe (sya sc-v ss oes egos IV in 20 years .......... ser++ 326 
triumph with the “Rocket” .. 24 Telegraph, electric, becomes indis- 
Stephenson, James, drives engine pensable to railways eine steaahs 326 
of first train ........+. esse 23 Tenth Decade, opening, 1920 .... 380 
*Stephenson’s No. 1 and modern lo- Test gS ey haa years to June ‘3 
i nhs eae erie Ta NDNA Md EE Tals rane Ge ube aren wise (ois @ 

Ed ERLE ws . 24 *Ticket, New York to Buffalo, 1832. 66 
*steam brake .....-++---- cae caus *office, oldest known in United 
*Stevens, Col. John, American in- A States aerate acinus tiles ticle 441 

ventor and promoter ......- 35 Tioga, Passenger cars wLS4 Ones etelene 82 
anticipates that rails will super- glad Decade, 1850-1860 %........ 102 
SOME) CaNalS. (sais lass «0's Dts i ooo Thomson, J. Edgar, early president 
demonstrates curved railways.. 37 Pennsylvania R. Ho oe Sram 115 
*Stevens, Robert L., designer of Through routes few in the 60’s... 163 
Jutiy Dee alee heb te: Aah 49 *“Tom Thumb,” Cooper’s first loco- 
Stockton & Darlington Ry., first TOOLIVE! Ayictetad acre awe agitate ris 4 See 
practical steam railway ..... 23 COBLYOR Ponce naw vais 8a seagate 37 
*Stone blocks for sleepers, 1830.... 57 *locomotive built by Peter 
*blocks with rails attached 56 Cooper ebelevelicteice 6) 0) 6e!.0,6)e elen sie ia 35 
*Stone, Warren S., portrait ...... 436 Fraceswiths Horses .ciuees «the ce 36 
Warren S., Grand Chief Loco- Track, mileage of, 1890 ......... 247 
motive Engineres, 1903. .250, 436 Tracks destruction and rebuilding 
*Storey, W. B., president, Atch., Of dOTINg | Wariiaes's bacones 160 
Top. & Santa Fe Ry...... 431 Traffic conditions, 1916 and 1923 
“Stourbridge Lion,” cost of ...33, 36 COMPAL We cite -ciere selaine ercteee oa 406 
*The, first locomotive on Amer- expansion, 1897-1907 ......... 97 
ican TAU SMe ters ote cispetorsuencvess) *.< 34 handled, NOMA tol Ol ene ree 366 
trial trip Of... 16. eeeee eee eee 32 reaches high level in 1917 .361, 362 
Strickland, William, sent to Eng- AT carl se MmOdeLL GLe stout coe arethae © fete 49 
land to investigate locomo- Train, first in the West.......... 163 
ELVOSHE Sch ote cheer ena ta crate ors) slevenstarere 33 Trainmen, average pay of, 1888- 
Strike, engineers’, on C. B. & Q,, LO 230 So ay cei he tos. tere Sateen terete 251 
1888... ce cee ener cece ceee 252 *president of Brotherhood of.. 437 
great railway, at Pittsburgh... 223 Trains, early through, New York 
of 1922 by shopmen against tO CHICAZO fs eit eee waa 163 
Labor Board award ....... 398 Tramway, Carbondale to Honesdale 30 
Prllatitet O94 we stem tas t coc eie,0 252 early, at Leiper, 1806 ...... 30 
threatened in 1921 abandoned 393 Trans-Atlantic steamship, first...... 27 
Subsidies, government, to Union Transportation Act of 1920....376, 380 
Pacihicuessn tee Ci ruber) SCA CAL slow development before age 
to Union Pacific refunded .... 270 Of) TailwayStisus. Son ke eet 3 
FEMitit TOL days sctsis si we oealec ama Pate 





472 HISTORY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS 
*Trestle across valley near South *nearing completion, October, 
Omaha coca. see cc oe ele A Dra 202 1 O24. apy. ceo ss acclinte, wintereiate teeta 398 
wT révithick, Richard etic. coca ean 21 *skeleton of concourse ....... 396 
Richard, inventor of first lo- *Union Station, Kansas City, exterior 350 
COMOtLVEa widen eosin eteciaeetets 21 *Union Station, St. Paul, exterior.. 401 
*model locomotive of ...... yea Lo Na yo tity ciao thse re ee ee ae 400 
*Truesdale, William H., president, “ain: .CONCOULSE Wi weenie 403 
Delaware, Lackawanna & *PDrOgkess 1OL- wOLlkalen seni nena 402 
Western (iws scan RIOT isin 432 *United States, railway maps, 1830, 
*Tubular tunnel at Detroit, approach 1840; 1850, VS60.) ae. ee ee 149 
TOS Comet etinnd case t ee Rie tele iase 318 *Unloading lake vessels by machin- 
*concrete lined interior ........ 319 CLY” bie lets Bele sintate otetenctertot eters 285 
Length oof metyetscisiemers Miners ote *Utah Central engine photographed 
Msinking a), SEGttOtic: venice inne 317 at Omaha in 1884 ......... 235 
*Tunkhannock Creek bridge (Lacka- 
V 
Wialltia) Mencia cael tie wismelei ate sieietens 292 
Tunnel under Detroit River at De- Valuation Act of 1913, results of.. 383 
ALOE BA rstecrarckseieteionersravels) castes 3:16 apportioned among states, 1904 290 
Two-cent a mile passenger fare fol- as shown by taxes .......... 326 
lowed by receiverships .... 312 by eroupss 240 ee eereee 383 
by three territorial divisions... 387 
U commercials 1904e 5 eet 288 
*Underwood, Fred’k D., president, Pace spt an BAe mp ge (Dagan: 
Briei) Ra Oe Rives ous tates ale 433 lag pass Sneath eae taes 
4 , commercial, per mile, by states 290 
Uniform accounts, adoption of..... 243 for rate making purposes 387 
Union, American Railway, strike... 252 of 1920, $18,900,000,000 agen 387 
*Union, Insurance Card of, TS 76ers 222 under the TransportationAct. . 387 
Union Pacific R. R., building de- Value of farms increased by rail- 
SCrIDEC satin ests ce ole telswnls « srereks 166 WAYS EN. 5 cote oe cee oe ete 136 
Rytatil lias oe teva eiteaecctictexetete siete sis icicts 173. _ ***Vandalia,” locomotive, 1895...... 259 
*Ghatrmanol is 0alG.mere atid ae 427 *Vanderbilt, Commodore............ 70 
Completed weve ew seach s oe te 179 share in Erie scandal......... 190 
corporation approved July 1, buys control in New York & 
TSG 2a iieeste c ciowe. cle cccrs talons eeimteroy 166 Harlem wens ae oer 71 
difficulties attending construc- *financier and consolidator of 
TOD Read oan weds eb ee Oe 173 Tatlways ut taine terete aie 7 () 
difficulties overcome on _ recon- starts his Staten Island ferry... 71 
SEFUCHION Micmac eles eoomsters tele 271 *Van Sweringen, Otis P., chairman 
Pederalcaid #tore nes uiccecee se 170 Nickel Plate Securities Co... 434 
gauge fixed by Congress ...... 172 *Van Sweringen, M. J., vice-presi- 
grant of right-of way..'.\.....- 170 dent, N. Y., Chi..& St. Louis 
*last spike driven May 10, 1869 179 Re Res patio eee oe aeeeaeaee 435 
*HrEesident mOLmes eile ¥ sisiers eeete atch 423 Vestibule cars put in operation in 
febuilding SOF) (asa ete Sees 269 TS SS.: 5:02. teee stauiy- cr eek A aoe 146 
TECEIVELSMIP OL Me cle sivie ei sierete he: ate 264 *“Victory,’’ the Rogers locomotive in 
Feorganizations Ots meee ce eter 269 L848 eho ciedevege ein eRe oe 100 
route chosen by New England Volume of traffic greatest in history 
and \ New .Y Orkw, sthscie sien es 169 INEIIZS Sie a tates esas aE Oe 
route of, anticipated in 1832.. 166 
taken over by a syndicate..... 269 WwW 
*Union Station, Chicago, architect’s *Wabash R. R., president of ...... 432 
GLAWIN GUase sete amienciels eaveraeeets 394 Wages and rates advanced by Di- 
MCONCOUTSE Drs Pisce Pte vices pic aterate 397 rector p Generale. 0 eee 370 
*ground plan and tracks ...... 395 of pay on New York Central in 
main Schall ae4.v i av iiniecctes Ree oo” 1877 wi cculdiesid as @ viotkehinitete neteeets 





INDEX 473 
Wages, circumstances to be _ con- *“Webster, Daniel,’’ model of..... «, 123 
Sidenedeyiites fxn eh as oti sae 381 first coal burning locomotive.. 137 
Labor Board cut shopmen’s.... 397 Westeethetluremots.cwces vicsclewess 57 

- Wagner Car Co., absorbed by Pull- Western railways help preserve the 
PH AEMOG Ole etete te ereces acai e'e’ aia ;- 146 RD ELOLUGE sloth «ly Gece le as hy aes 150 
Wagner sleepers competed with Patewad vance ie UO cles crs ae Aley/ 

Purllima nS goad enctesie eee ots 145 Rate Case decision based on 
Walker, Aldace F., chairman of false premises......... SAIS sre ODL 
Board under Santa Fe reor- TOAUS» w CCHEeSISMOLe this). rec ee L SO 
IPANIZALION encarta te yeyet ree eal ole av 266 *Westinghouse, George, portrait..... 203 
commissioner and receiver..... 266 father of the trainbrake...... 204 
War, America’s entry into the Great 361 firstapatent in, LoOSiscm eases se 207 
declaration of, April 6, 1917... 362 Sketch ote lutexart mnie accion = 205 


the Great, found railways short 
OlmeECUipMentes. cae seh eee as 366 
in the shadow of the Great... 357 
War Board, Railroads’, members of 362 
Ratlroads7orranized se. saiece toO2 
iRailroadsmeresipnss-:t tess cs ss 01 SOS 
*Warfield, S. Davies, president, Sea- 


board 2A tra Lines.o. cies oe cusses 433 
Washington, George, early visits to 
Pittsburye hienmcrcrlslorsicesieieins 2 
experience in 1747........000% 1 
*headquarters at Fort Cumber- 
ATT Ue s Sevaa secerae crstenaieta eles 111 
interest in waterways......... 15 
*Washington, Union Station, facade 
OE ee al egteeawnddlg cee 
*main concourse........ dace e sisi OOS 
CL OmEHemET Att Site ere Api noes 333 
BtrackslayOutectle s/s Badisloe eebiees FOOL 
“trainsheds <.......< HRC SOO TODO Ces) 
Waterways, era of......... Dae ane 
natural and artificial, preceded 
EAall WAY Sim sietetotancie sists ohcueietsve othe 12 
passing of their traffic to rail- 
WAYS os mics ess anleie esc wiste's oe. 128 
MV att we Jaimes, © portfattw css poss see's cs 4 10 
adapts and perfects Newcomen’s 
irghiVs, sao Sos COCO eteretaie's 17 
*first etipitie: Of... 2.66 esse oe 18 
*improved engine of.........-- 18 


Wealth, national, increase of...... 230 


organizes Air Brake Company.. 209 
*Westinghouse Works at Wilmerding, 


Par il ODA Seca tete sicisie <3 210 
“What the traffic can bear’ mis- 
UNMCErSLOOG Meneitare st orev telnet 21s 256 
aVVAITECLS meetin Stan ({SCCsjeneye icicle’. thsrelare efa.e 4 
Whitney, Asa, Pacific route pro- 
qeciediby’ 194500 e oe). ome ce 167 
Widdefield & Button brake........ 206 
*Willard, Daniel, president, Balti- 
TOTS cee © IO tercteee tetas ee mie 418 
Wilson, James, Secretary of Agri- 
culture, on railway share of 
PLICES Haste eee teas wee arauares S15 
Wilson, President, assurances to 
Laalway ei VeStOUsnr-yetseratere =!) 367 
*Wood burning locomotive......... 154 
*Wooden railway car with flanged 
Wilkie GIGMe Aves a ciciecarearmiete cites 29 
Workmen, character of, on Union 
Pacific construction. ......... 175 
Vora eeS lieike Git Ih). oan gensoocon 263 
efrecty ONmtratiCunte aiteereiieacels © 263 
TAlWWA VS Hee GOW tHNLO a atelatsloiele sisie 454 
Y 


Yard tracks and sidings, 1890-1900 284 


id 
Zanesville bridge destroyed by flood 310 














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